As mentioned, you really want to add a fresh air duct to feed the fire with outside air. All wood fired stoves consume a large amount of air. If that air is drawn from the house, besides pumping warm room air up the chimney, it places the house under a vacuum and all that air is replaced by cold outside air thru every crack in the envelope. A sealed combustion air supply will stop this and make the house more comfortable. If you really want to enhance the comfort this heater provides, add a second separate air duct. Run this one to a small computer fan so it blows air against the heat exchanger to heat the fresh outside air. That supply with the fan will add a slight positive pressure to the house and force air out thru the cracks in the envelope, instead of sucking cold air in. I have done this with the last 2 wood stoves I have had and will do it with any other I ever use. The difference in room/house comfort is literally night and day…
And when your fire pumps a ton of air up the chimney, thats what is required to make the space comfortable, fans trying to move the heat back out away from the fire, as the suction from the fire pulls cold air in thru the gaps in walls and floor and pulls it toward the fire. If you eliminate the fire suction with an outside air duct hard plumbed into the fire air supply you stop the air draw from the room and make it a lot nicer heat source. If you further add a positive pressure source AT the stove, you reverse the process as that positive pressure spreads out thru the room flowing toward all the air leaks in the envelope, it carries the heat with it warming the room evenly. Same as he is doing with fans, but a tiny amount of energy and almost no noise to run a 4” computer fan…
@@Richardj410 based on years of practical experience. Do you have a wood stove? Close/block any air vents, so the only way air can get in is thru the door. Start a fire and control the air with door position and you will understand what I am getting at. I shifted from a woodstove to a pellet stove years ago. That was terrible as it has a blower that forces a ton of combustion air into the stove. The house was terrible as it sucked in cold air thru every leak, until I got it setup to use outside air for the combustion feed. Then I added a second air supply to feed the heat exchanger with fresh outside air, and things got quite nice with positive pressure to the stove area. Went back to a woodstove after a few years on the pellet, but kept the outside air feed. Wish I had done the forced outside air feed a decade earlier…
Good video, and we also used a pellet stove for years because propane was so expensive, and a wood stove in the basement also. I enjoyed the many years of country living.
Less work than a traditional wood stove, not that I ever minded the extra work. It just became part of the daily routine that was sort of fun. I haven't seen many, but I've seen one or two houses built for wood heat with a stove in the basement, and great big grates lined up above it, and other sets of grates all around the perimeter of the house that brought air back down from upstairs.. Convection brought warm air into all 3 floors above it.
I hope these rocket stoves keep evolving so everyone can share ideas on development. The Russians use a brick stove with a very long horizontal chimney but I think it has slow gas travel to the end of the chimney stack. Greater heat transfer and larger thermal mass of brick work should stay warmer even after fuel goes out.
I think I've seen what you're talking about, the last video I saw of that was in Yakutsk. Also there is a company in the US called "temp cast", they make big masonry heater kits, which allow for a baking oven, but I believe are a smaller scale compared to the Russians style. Indigenous South Americans also make a similar much smaller heater that allows them to bake and cook on top as well. Multipurpose, as they all SHOULD be. Good stuff 👍
@@anesthesiadreamin Looks like that wall has been getting hot, it looks like it has deformed a bit, just like a wood stove shouldn’t you have a deflection plate behind it?
@@Jbmc65 we have talked about that, but haven't done it yet. But you are right, thanks for the reminder. We are talking about putting up a plate to the ceiling spaced from the wall and then building a brick wall to the ceiling for some thermal mass
@@anesthesiadreamin as a test, put a bare thin aluminium sheet, 1-2mm, spaced 10cm from the wall or so (open at the top), bare aluminium reflects IR very very well, space to wall will create a draft which will cool the sheet down, sort of like a chimney, but for room air but overall this seems a pretty wasteful way to use pellets, if it were a holiday cabin, then fine, but for home IMHO this is not appropriate, I heat a 250sqm old wooden house, with not so great insulation, and use max a bag (15kg) a day when it is around freezing outside, it is purpose built burner though, but also much safer than this setup, forced air, has fuel "disconnect" because it is fed by 2 auger system, one on top of another, gas temp leaving to chimney is just over half what you have here, it heats water for heated floors or radiators, one fill lasts around a week and a half, remove ash once a month, every couple weeks it is advisable to sweep the heat exchanger with a brush (round tubes), it does need a dedicated space for it though, can't put that in a living room
Neat stove! Put floor fan in cold area. Use it to push the cold air out along the floor. Warm air will be drawn in across the ceiling. Very little effort from the fan is needed since you’re assisting natural convection currents. Stated another way, when using floor fans, I found that pushing cold air out of an area I want to heat is much easier and more effective than trying to push air in against the natural convection current.
@@JamesWalters1 Yes! It's always easier to push cold denser air than hot thinner air. Address this in my follow-up video, and a lot of other questions and ideas commenters had, the link is at the end of this video you just watched. Thanks for your comment!
Nice. Looks like a good setup for burning free woodchips if you have a dry place to store them. Spread about 1 inch thick on a driveway for 8 hours on a sunny day. You won't get as much burn time, of course, but they are free. Also, I use outside air for combustion. Much more comfortable at lower temperatures.
So did I understand you correctly, you burn wood chips in a rocket heater? Did you happen to make a video of your outside air combustion setup? I need to do that next
Actually, I heat my house with homemade, modified 5-gallon TLUD camp stoves with a heat exchanger. Outside air is vented thru my basement, from my attached garage, and stays plugged when the stove is idle. The air is fed from the bottom. Wood chips are my kindling, as the stove burns from the top down to my feed stock, which is short firewood standing upright. Your setup is better because it feeds constantly. Mine is cheaper, cuz I get my fuel for free. That is why I suggested wood chips. If they will feed without bridging, you could have free fuel. You will just have to load the hopper more often and avoid big sticks. Edit. After replying to you, I watched your video again. It looks like wood chips would definitely bridge. @@anesthesiadreamin
@@tonysteinke7234 I live in the UK and am considering off gridding at some point. I understand the benefits of direct air outdoor air system, but could you explain to me "bridging" is thag the fuel setting fire to itself in the hopper? :)
Bridging is the wood chips hanging up somewhere between the hopper and the grate where they are burned. I think the air feed design on this stove prevents any back burning provided a strong draft is maintained.@@smvsspould
It's worth noting that these rocket stove-style heaters can push flue gas horizontally as they don't depend upon the flue for primary draft; the draft is *inside* the stove. Horizontal runs are still dangerous, however, as they can be under positive pressure and thus leak into the house while also collecting creosote; the horizontal run should thus drain to outside (like a plumbing pipe) the house before turning upward. Sealing the flue and then surrounding it with mud-clay furniture turns creates a DIY mass heater that operates similarly to a masonry heater, but most homes won't have engineered flooring to support that mass unless they're on a concrete slab. There's a very powerful chimney *inside* these stoves, so they draft very well once hot. However, draft during startup can be an issue with horizontal flue runs, as there's a plug of cold air in the flue between the draft barrel and the vertical exhaust. I'll bet that the Liberator company does not recommend horizontal runs (their website just says to check local codes). Thus, it's safest to turn the flue up at the stove exhaust as shown in the video, but efficiency will be less optimal as you are using much of the exhausted heat to power the flue draft rather than heat the home; it's still an efficient setup compared with most other solutions, however, so this is really not a problem. Any exhaust below 212F will inherently produce condensate, which will then collect creosote and drip from the bottom of the flue. Though the draft barrel (it's not a burn barrel, but people might call it that as it's a familiar term) is a good place to check the operating temperature, a thermometer in the flue may be needed to determine the minimum stove temperature needed to keep water from condensing in the flue; except during startup and shutdown, the stove should not be operated at flue temperatures less than 225F. People have been building these stoves themselves using a steel barrel around a firebrick "chimney" for over 30 years, but I'm glad that a company has turned the concept into a manufactured product.
@@antibrevity very good information! My external flu temperature is typically over 200, but as it gets higher it cools off . The clean out video that I did showed mostly gray Ash and very small amounts . Part of my chimney pipe has the male ends sometimes up and sometimes down , but I haven't had anything leak out onto the outside of the pipe . Pat this is exactly why I love RUclips, there's so many smart people out there that are willing to comment and give their expertise. Thanks for contributing! That was a good read, and I'm sure others will appreciate it also.
Have you considered that it might not be the MAP gas that's lighting the pellets faster, but instead the torch head you're using? I have both of those torch heads, and the one you have on the MAP gas is a much more efficient design.
Thats funny, I just realized that when lighting the heater about 20 minutes ago when I switched the torch heads and got about the same bigger flame out of the propane bottle. That will save me some money! This is why I love youtube, I (and others) learn so much from the comments, so thanks for watching and for posting 👍
Oh, and if you don't mind me asking, my understanding is MAPP is no longer available, so what do you use MAP Pro gas for, if it really doesn't burn that much hotter than propane?
When I say we love this heater, I mean both my wife and I, it's a competition in the morning to see who can get up the earliest first to get to light it. Burning pellets has decreased our workload significantly compared to bringing in tons of firewood and feeding a woodstove frequently. It has just changed our lives for the better. Great job guys!!!
Using a "step drill" instead of a twist drill makes much cleaner holes in sheet metal. Where do you source your pellets and about how much do they cost? The old middle school (now torn down) here in Grand Rapids MN converted their boiler to run on pellets which were apparently available inexpensively locally. Not sure if the new middle school uses pellets.
Going back to 1982-1985 we put a Shenandoah wood stove in front of our fireplace, 1300sqft home. Ran the exhaust into a plate into the fireplace. Heated 3+ years with only wood. The gas company came by to inspect. We had a pot of water on the stove, humidity and heat. It was great but I got tired of cutting trees and splitting the wood. The pellets seem to be the easier solution. Thanks.
In addition (I gather) this system uses MUCH Less wood, I don't know what a 45# bag of pellets but I'd bet is is much cheaper than constantly feeding a conventional wood stove for 2 days. It that a good comparison?
Sorry I didn't make that clear, the hopper and feed tube can hold a little bit more than 1 40 lb bag, in other words one 40 lb bag fills up the hopper to about 1 in below the top edge. So you could squeeze a bit more in
Simpler starting for your stove than a torch: buy/make some BBQ wax cubes / nests / whatever non-accelerant based charcoal / wood starters. They're basically like candles and can start charcoal so they should be able to start pellets.
In France we have a company selling smoke duct with a double layer allowing to bring fresh air from the outer part of the tube and eliminating smokes with the inner part
ok....that is far better than my pellet stove ! I have a tractor supply PP130 that I have had to modify ( had it for 6~7 yrs)... I use a 40# bag a day of wood pellets, and the stove runs 24/7 when it's cold outside (below 50 deg.) I had to replace a room fan and an exhaust fan about a year before the control circuit board died... at seeing the price to the circuit board I decided to replace the circuit board with a simple timer off Amazon... and it's been working great sense the efficiency of your stove is impressive I estimate about 1/2 bag of pellets a day for my use....and that is impressive especially when you consider if the electric power quits we are without heat ! ..... I made a pellet stove like yours for the shop but have never hooked it up it uses about a quart of pellets in 8 hrs ! it's efficiency is astounding but it is about 1/3 the size of yours the burn basket is only 3" in diam. but burns almost as hot as yours.... I think in this instance that smaller is better you burn less pellets but get the same heat and that is a Win-Win !!!!
@@bobkelly2447 Great information! Did you make a video on your build? I would love to see it. The only disadvantaged the liberator has compared to a regular electric pellet stove is there's no thermostat control, it just cranks out heat. That's why our house gets up to about 80°. Sometimes inside the kitchen living room and great room. With this one, you can't throttle it down even lower so it burns at less than 400°, but liberator says then the rocket burn gets very inefficient, and will make a lot more soot. So for the size of the burn chamber/ pellet tube/ heat chamber /exhaust, I'm not sure this one can run a whole lot slower and still be efficient. But again, I'm no expert . I would really like to see your build but also how you installed the timer on the electric one. Hey thanks for sharing, and for your comments.
If u make a video drop me a link. I've always fabbed my own stuff also but I just dont have time to build one. I would like to see what u came up with with if u can 👍
I just worry about choking it down that far and reducing the draft might cause the fire to burn up the hopper tube and catch your hopper on fire. Have you ever seen anything like that or had smoke coming out of the top of the hopper?
yes, and you are correct, we just had that happen last week, we had the flue choked down, and the intake throttled way back, and the wind was blowing hard outside, and the hopper ran out of pellets, and when I opened the hopper to refill it, there was some smoke inside. (reverse chimney?) So I think a perfect combination of everything in that case, but I think you are right on, choking down the flue pipe is likely the biggest contributor. But also I have neither had nor heard of the pellets burning back up the feed tube. Just like a rocket heater with wood being fed in it, the fire never comes back up the wood that's inside the feed tube. Great discussion, thanks for the comment!
5:05 why are you holding it? i have a can that holds mine at the right height, i ignite the flame, put it down, set a timer for 3 minutes and make a cup of tea while it heats the puck
@@wdwilson397 those inlet covers do not come with the stove, nor do they supply any. They are not really needed for it to run. I just did that to prolong the burn. Be sure to check out the video at the end of this video, there's a box link there, and it explains a bit further why I did that. And of course, if you choose to make a couple plugs and experiment with burn rate, they're only like five bucks a piece
You might want to think about getting a catalytic compuster for less emissions and a cleaner chimney as well as extra heat. You should also make sure that you have maximum secondary burn of the wood gas. You also mentioned you'd like a fan on the top of the heater. You should look into stirling engines. They use the heat from the heater to turn in to mechanical work for a fan for instance.
That's crazy. My log stove will run 24 hours on $3 worth of wood. That's the absolute worst-case scenario running it at max output to keep a drafty 3600 sqft house overly warm in the coldest weather we've ever had. On normal days, I run it less than half the day, and it burns less than $1 worth of wood. I basically just load a full fire box worth of wood in the late evening and there will still be a good bed of coals 24 hours later to auto-start another load.
I have a few questions- (I currently operate a woodstove during the heating season in Vermont) How many pellets come in a bag and what is their price per bag?- what portion of a bag fills the hopper? Is there creosote like with a woodstove, in the chimney pipe? I sweep my own chimney and pipes- this is a twice a year chore. Where do you store the pellets? I assume they can't be stored where they can absorb moisture.
Good questions, prior to this we used the wood stove to supplement our heat in Colorado. So pellets come in 40 lb bags, they're about 6 to 8 bucks a bag, one bag fills the hopper up to about 1 in below the top edge, absolutely no creosote because the burn is so complete in the vertical burn chamber, it even Burns the secondary gases, so there's very little Ash burning pellets. We've cleaned out the stove after one month of burning pellets, and got about a cup of Ash out of the stove itself, there was nothing in the chimney pipe but a little bit of pellets come in a waterproof plastic bag, We still store them in a garage to make sure they stay dry in case there's a leaky bag, and also to keep them warmer. Murdochs sells them and stores them outside in the snow 😂
Hi..just wanted to let you know that we've learned a lot from watching your videos. Thanks for putting them up. Wanted to share with you as far as a mass goes. We didn't have a chance to add a mass before the snow flew ..but got bricks and surrounded the canister..they hold the heat very well and extend the heating time. Wanted to add a picture..but not seeing a way to do that.
@@julietrettell6452 no, you can't upload a pic, but you can upload a video! Do you have a RUclips channel yet? It's easy to create if you don't have one already. And then just shoot video on your phone, if you don't like it reshoot it, don't worry about editing it, and then upload it. Super easy. If you upload a video of your setup, I would really like to see it. I like your idea of the surrounding thermal mass, that's easy to put up and take down 👍
Where did you get the glass for your stove mine is steel .On Amazon I bought a 4 inch damper used a can that fit in their works good .I also put a fan at the side of my stove puts nice even air out .I have the older model and have the newer where you can clean it 😊
this pyroceramic glass is from Wood stove fireplace glass out of Illinois. It measures 5 13/16 in square, and is 3/16 thick. I ordered it online at woodstove-fireplaceglass.com and it took about a week for it to arrive. On their home page click glass, pyroceram, shop by custom size, rectangle/square, then you can put in the dimensions you want, and the thickness. I don't get anything from this company, I just like their product. Have you made any videos? I would like to see your setup and how it works! Thx for watching and for your feedback!
When starting pellets, I find that if you squirt some alcohol on the pellets and light them, they start right up usually only one application will do it.
Your 45/45 elbow setup is fine. I’ve burned wood for over 50 years and my stack has a similar setup. Really nice heat source you have. Also, running a pipe horizontally is a great way to have no draft and nice hot chimney fires.
@@MeteCanKarahasan as he said running a chimney horizontal is not a way to run chimney pipe , you always want an incline unless you are running a mechanically induced draft. and the reason is simple if draft slows an ash or particle build up, as the build if they get built up enough the close down the size of the pipe restrict flow but also can cause a hot spot where ash can become a focal hot poit and even ash can flash over sending a shower of fine ash spark up chimney that can cause other issues, simple way to think think of chimney and skoes as water but flowling in reverse . where do you get you best flow fastest and most con sistant flow ? its not on a flat horiizontal run its on a vertical.
So way back in the day, one of my relatives had a fireplace that used a quartz rod through the back of the firebox to close off the airflow when it got too hot. The expansion of the rod over it's length pushed a lever arm that blocked off the inlet air in some manner, I never got a satisfactory explanation. A mechanical system like this would be pretty high on my list up upgrades, but with google being the dumpster fire that it is good luck finding any useful information on such a thing. A heavy duty bi-metallic coil might be easier to source and implement.
I can say with all confidence now, I wish we had done this a long time ago. I don't get anything from liberator, We just really like this heater, My wife and I are sort of in competition to who can get up the earliest in the morning to start it 😂
Sir, do you use a dehumidifier around the house? Because that is the best way to increase the relative temperature if heat doesn't collect dew due to increased water carrying capacity from higher temperature.
Always wondered how welding on some radiator fins made of 3/16" mild steel and a little shrouidng around with expanded metal as a gaurd would do, bet it will heat up the place even faster.... still, thanks for showing us. and even in a pinch, can take out basket, put in a shelf and use scrap twigs and offcuts.
I've been wondering the same thing, also wondering about attaching a fan to some radiator fins like you're describing. Now I just might have to build it 🙂
@@anesthesiadreamin maybe just use a couple of those heat powered wood stove fans to blow maybe off a reflector... Might be worth two or maybe three mounted along somewhere... in case of power outage, or to eliminate electric fan altogether. Cheers from Alberta.
Putting on fins might make the burn barrel too cool for complete combustion, and could increase particulates and coke up the exhaust. I'd talk to the liberator guys to make sure.
@@timothyblazer1749 You are exactly right, I spoke with them about a week ago and they said optimal burn temp at the "bullseye" of the top should be 450-650, higher wears out the liner/burn tube faster, below 450 is suboptimal burn with potential for creosote buildup. I will definitely check with them, they are super nice and very helpful. Hey thanks for watching and for the good suggestion 👍
They don't work. Good for looking at, educational for children but that's it. The amount of electricity produced is only sufficient to turn a fan whose blades are not designed for air flow.
@@tomjohnson7508 You are refering to the Peltier effect where heat is converted into electricity / thermoelectric effect. Sadly the amount of electricity produced is typically only sufficient to rotate the blades on an electric motor but not enough power to move air. These fans are excellent teaching tools but useless as a practical fan. Most are located on a wood stove or similar where natural air convection is greater than anything a Peltier fan can manage.
Great video! These have some learning curves! Great to share notes! Doesn’t the wall next to it, get awfully hot? We have a vertical desk about the same distance from our stove, as yours is to the wall-maybe slightly farther away... I had to cover its side all the way up, with heavy duty aluminum foil to shield it. Also had to hang some foil as a screen to protect any using the desk, from getting too hot, & another on the other side to protect anyone sitting in the rocking chair there! Hot, these stoves! His perked air intake cap is a great simple control on how hot it gets. I like my air intake damper, better…. Old fireplace has an ash-dump hole, so I used 4” aluminum drier duct parts, including a damper (had to make one using a can lid + a long bolt for the knob), for fresh air intake directly to one of the air intakes. Could add a 2nd one, if needed. But one’s working well here. Had to do it… Even our old leaky tract house was too tight!?… throttling the burn in our rocket stove (or any other stove). Now, can close that damper while firing the stove up, to stop smoke from back-flushing into the room; then close the fire door & open the damper once it’s going. It looks kinda clunky, but efficient. I put a solid cap on the other air intake. A minor glitch: The pellet flow controller slide-flap: It needs fiddly-carefully adjusted it to the very edge, to be sure the full-round of the drop-pipe is full-open; fraction of that, even a sliver, impeding pellet-drop, results in pellets jamming & stopping our rocket stove. Mystery of the rocket stove: No clue why, but, the hearth on the left side of the stove gets palpably hotter than on the right side, even tho the cool air intake is on that left side..!? We buy the lowest cost pellets, & check that bags have not gotten wet, or smashed into dust-but the dust does burn, too. Very loosely figured, we still spent less $$ on pellets last winter, than the previous similar winters’ electric heat bills, by maybe about $40. USD. And it felt so good! Hardest impediment to installing ours: …couldn’t find ANY contractor of any kind, to simply push the button on the pulley, to pull the chimney liner up our old chimney. I cleared-out the rotted damper, & modified the “shelf” to be wide enuf to put the liner up. DH made the frame to mount the pulley onto, to fit the top of chimney. We had everything set to go-just needed someone competent to climb the 15’ ladder-neither of us belonged up the ladder. Finally, after 2 years, a neighbor took pity on us, & climbed that ladder….so, last winter was the 1st time using our rocket stove. Once that got pulled up enuf (it went fast), I stuffed special high-temp insulation around the lower end to fill in the chimney space, & neighbor used more of that to block space around the top of the liner, attach the stainless steel flat-cap over the sleeve/chimney, & reinstalled the screened topper. I used 2 adjustable pipe clamps at liner top, to stop it sliding back down, & put bricks under the bottom L to support it at the bottom, above the fireplace floor, & put in a cleanout T btwn the stove & the L. There’s a ceramic insulation board wrapped with foil, installed on the hearth, under the stove. That thing gets bloody melt-down hot under the firebox! I didn’t want to have to repair heat-damaged hearth tiles anytime in the projected future. That special insulation board is brittle, hence covered by foil (or repurposed cookie sheet)-it fits almost exactly between the legs of the stove, which sits on the hearth. A recycled aluminum pan sits on that board, & slides out to scoop ashes into. Got the high-temp insulation & board from WallyWorld online, as were the S/S chimney liner & parts. Not all chimneys draw. Our brick insult to chimney builders everywhere, is over 40 years old; it’s 15’ tall, high enuf that air flow does not compete with roof peak-it Should draw, fine…. …but for 8 years, we could not get it to draw at all, even after I opened its throat to put the liner thru. Not even when I stacked bricks to reduce the fireplace opening. The old rotting insert had been installed wrong, & there was never any rain protection up top. The only hope we had was to install the liner right. Eventually, the plan is to get a piece of heat resistant stove glass to use as fire door, to get a flame-view -there’s a place online that will make them to order-be sure to measure twice so only order once! They can make it with a hole to put a handle in the glass-far better than trying to pinch-hold hot glass with thick gloves. Just be sure the handle you choose can withstand that high heat. Glass expands at different rate than steel-be sure to measure slightly smaller than the interior slot-width, to prevent glass getting stuck in slot from heat expansion. Even the original metal door on ours, gets stuck too easily. I like how his glass is taller than the bracket- of need to use gloves to pull it out. These stoves can heat upwards of 2000 sq.ft., but might need fans to boost it around your layout. Ours needs fans to boost it, even in our semi-open-plan. I had to install hall doors to subdivide resident’s spaces, but made transoms over them. Got transom fans (very quiet, adjustable & reversible) to go over a couple. Also, there are the heat-generated-electric stove fans-several configurations, to put on top of a wood stove. I set ours on an angle, so it’s not blowing forward at the pellet bin. Very quiet. Those seem to have been much better than the noisy big fans. Cats? Ours are curious when it’s being started, but when it gets hot, they keep away. Dogs? Usually smart enuf to keep safe. Kids? Impaired adults? Rowdy teens?…Put a safety fence around the whole installation!!
@@johnhess3091 Thanks! So I found out shortly after I shot this video. Using the bigger torch on the propane cans will save some money for sure. I actually addressed this in my questions answered follow-up video, the link is at the end of this video. Thanks for your feedback
@@1kreature You mean like a barbecue grill I think? I almost made one like that, but I ended up doing a cold air intake, that link is at the end of this video
@@anesthesiadreamin You drill holes in the cap and a lid the same, so that when the holes align you get plenty air, but when holes do not align it chokes air off. i.ebayimg.com/images/g/wCEAAOxyRhBS8nEX/s-l400.jpg
Great video thanks for sharing in detail. I would like to know how big is your house and how much bags it takes to fill the heater for as you say a whole Day? Thanks that would help a lot.
@@nicomeer934 Great question! I answered that and a few other questions that commenters asked in another video. That video link is at the end of this video you just watched, just look for a box at the end of the video and click it
I am also in SW Montana. I see the thermometer on the top says Silverbow Hearth and Home. Is that were you got it? I am trying to find who sells them around here.
good observation! I don't know of a local retailer, I bought this one directly through Liberator at rocketheater.com and paid for shipping. Prepper Hideout in Sheridan, WY has them on their website but I am not sure if they actually stock them. I saw one randomly a few years ago in a Colorado hardware store, but they only had one. Maybe call your local woodstove shops/installers if you want to try to save on shipping, you just might find a better deal, or maybe as a retailer they could get them from Liberator cheaper and/or shipped to them cheaper. Definitely worth a phone call
Invest in a Stirling Engine fan. You just place them on the top if your fireplace, and when they get warm they turn on all by themselves. Requires no power, just heat.
Insufficient power. He needs a 24 or a 30" wall fan, they mount to the wall and would be perfect to blow across the top of the stove and from there to other fans depending on how big his house is and how it's configured.
@@tinaann3323Great question, a lot of people ask that, and I explain that in the second video, the link is at the end of this video that you just watched. Be sure to check it out. Thanks for watching!
So you are doing a 12 hour burn for under ten dollars ? Also what keeps the burn from going up the feed pipe to the hopper ? It would be cool if you could incorperate a large mass of concrete that would turn it into a mass heater and even further its efficiency. Cheers from Canada !
Yes, it seems a lot of people are adding mass to this and getting good results. And yes, a 12-hour burn at minimum. Usually around 18 per 40 lb bag of pellets. And the air coming down around the pellet feed tube hits the burn chamber where the actual fire is , and makes The flame burn upside down, and then the flame Burns into the burn chamber, So no chance of it burning back up the feed tube. Great questions! Thanks for watching 👍
Thank you for sharing. Is the reason for placing the heater on bricks simply so you don’t have to bend down so low to ignite the pellets and for more space on the clean out on the backside? Also, have you ever considered adding an outdoor air intake on the opposite 4” opening where you have the damper cap?
Absolutely, when spring comes I will be adding a cold air intake. When the heater was on the tile hearth, it was getting the hearth very hot. So I raised it up on 2 bricks, which I have seen others on youtube do as well. Check the playlist "Liberator" on my channel, there are several more "short" videos that explain a few more things. Thanks for watching, and for the questions! 😁
I've been wondering about waste oil, the only thing is I think we'd have to be careful about how much, because liberator says running temps over 700° can cause the internals to wear out faster. So you need to control how much heat the oil burning is making. Typical oil burners have A lot of heat go right out the chimney, and the rocket heater like this one traps all the heat in the top, so it can get pretty dang hot. If you do this, I'd love to see a video on it!
@@__WJK__ absolutely, We just haven't invested in them yet. Those would be great for circulating air if the power goes out. Currently we're just using a couple floor fans
@@flatheadfletch A few ways. Put a plug on your furnace power and plug it into an inverter that's clipped to your car battery, idle your car and your HVAC fan will run. Of course you have to store some gas, which we do, another video on my channel. That's one way we're planning on having backup. The other is solar generators, I'm actually building a couple as we speak, the videos should be out in a few weeks, and those can run an HVAC fan as well, or just simple floor fans. Also our home has generator back up, which could run the heater, or just use a small Generator to run simple fans to circulate the heat. But even if none of that worked, we could keep all the doors open, open all the cabinets under the sinks, and just crank this heater up to where the main rooms are 85°, and then just by radiation it should keep the rest of the house from freezing. That's the Hope anyway, we've never had to try it yet 🤣 although this Liberator did work for about 4 to 5 hours last winter when it was -41 and we lost power. It literally kept our house warm even when it was that cold. ruclips.net/user/shortspm0hwWld8rQ?si=uCSdvvOWon7lHI57
yes, exactly. The heat rising up the chimney is enough to make a "pre" draft in the feed tube, so the flame literally burns upside down and then laterally in the burn chamber (with pellets). When using wood (without the pellet hopper), the wood actually contacts the bottom of the burn chamber and the flame in that case burns laterally
Time will tell! We inspected the chimney after one month of burning, it had a fine layer of dust accumulated on the inside, barely noticeable. I have heard people that use home made rocket mass heaters clean theirs but just out of abundance of caution and usually get very little buildup out... Liberator recommends having the chimney cleaned twice during the burning season. Great question, I am going to make a "youtuber questions answered" video soon, and I will include this one in it. Thanks for watching, and for your question!
As long as the "cut off plate" is fully removed, the pellets feed fine. When we light it, you pull this plate out so the pellets fall down the tube into the burn basket, and I have tried to ~barely~ leave the plate inserted so I don't have to put it on the floor, but that seems to disrupt feeding (sometimes, not all the time). Also, if we try to pack pellets into the hopper, like we over fill it and push them down to try to get the lid closed, then they will jam. So just dump a bag in, don't spread them out all even and level, don't overfill it and try to compact them into the hopper. Today it's been running since 6am, now 9:30pm, haven't touched it since 6AM, not one issue, feeding fine. Great question, I should add that into a follow up video. Thanks for watching!
Very nice heater. What stops the fire going up the pellet feed tube though? As an idea for the damper, perhaps you could put a sliding plate which covers or opens the amount of holes in your current fitting then you could adjust as you like.
@@paullewis252The rocket part is what keeps the fire from bringing back up the feed tube. If you look closely, the flame is actually burning upside down. So a combination of the draft pulling the flame into the burn chamber, and also the air rushing down around the feed tube both work in combination to keep the flame burning where it's supposed to... And yes, that sliding plate would work well, I almost did that with this design, but this was so easy and ended up leaving it like this. Also considered a regular damper on a tube stuck in the side, may try that this winter. The liberator people actually recommended putting a damper in the chimney as the best way to control the burn, and also to trap more heat. That will be an upcoming video where I discuss all that. Hey great observations, thanks for your questions, and thanks for watching!
Idk how it would work for a building with very tall ceilings. Our house has 10 and 1/2 ft ceilings, and it keeps it very warm. IIRC, your building is super well insulated, so it may do very well
Lots of people asked this same question, and I didn't make it clear why we do that. Basically the bedroom/bath furthest from the heater doesn't get warm enough from this heater because it is so far away, and my wife wants a warm bathroom in the morning, so we let this burn out around 9 or 10PM and the forced air heat comes on overnight and keeps the back bedroom/bathroom warm. We have not had issues with leaving it unattended, and yes it will burn all night as long as you keep it loaded with pellets. Be sure to check out the "questions answered" video link at the end of this video.
I'm curious what the efficiency is. I've thought about adding a pellet stove in my MIL suite but after researching it seems heat pumps are cheaper to run until you hit maybe 15-20F, depending on COP.
Its the toech not the gass. As you point out the gas temp is not much hotter, but the torch you have on the blue bittle is much lower btu than the pro torch you habe on the map bottle. Swap torches on the bottles and youll see the blue out oerform the yellow.
This reminded me of that really old tv show Home Improvement where the dad makes things in the garage and the guy next door (Frankenstein munster guy-fred Gwynne) is looking over the fence yard
Great video, I have an American Harvest pellet stove that I have been using for the past 10 + years. Just doing a little research on these Rocket Heaters to see how well they work and whats all involved with venting etc. Can these heaters be vented out the side of the house or are they required so much vertical pipe? Also does the hopper for the pellets hold a 40lb bag of pellets or more? Again, nice video.
@@markr6937 I've seen people do that on other RUclips videos , where they run the chimney through the wall and then vertical again once it's outside . I don't have any experience with that . But If you go to the website rocketheater.com, and look under their FAQ page, you will see installation instructions, and there they go into details about recommendations. And yes, the pellet Hopper holds a bit over 40 lb of pellets. Be sure to check out the link at the end of this video for the "questions answered" video, where I discuss the cold air intake, how much the hopper holds, etc. Thanks for watching! And for your question. The people at Liberator are very helpful, I've used their "contact us" link several times for questions I had before I bought one
I have a question. Where do you get the pellets for the stove? I have been trying to find some for my pellet patio heater and it’s not available anywhere in my area. Only pellets for a barbecue pit, but that is expensive.
@@Bro_Jared I have bought them from Murdochs, Tractor Supply, and most ranch/farm stores sell them, my ACE hardware does also. Saw them at bulk stores also like Costco and Three Bears Alaska
You could totally make an adjustable baffle on the air intake I think from a process control pov, it would be best to have a PID controller adjust the baffle according to the exhaust chimney temperature And then you could tune it by adjusting the setpoint of the chimney exhaust
@@anesthesiadreamin Except I'm planning on quitting my job in a couple months and throwing away all my stuff except for what i can carry on my bike. I'm going to become a litter picking bike tourist called Johnny Litter Bags I just gotta write my story in a succinct way to the judge so that he will cut me loose But SOME DAY I would like to find a home, and when I do that place is going to be rocking and tuned
That is a fantastic system. . . My only concern is a earthquake when the stove is burning and you are away from your home and the stove falls off the bricks. Potential leaving the stove laying on its side or uneven while a burn is underway !! Could it ignite the hopper reservoir or spill hot pellets on the surrounding areas ? Other than that, I think pellet stoves are great.
Yes you are right, I hadn't thought of that. When we lived for a couple years in SoCal, I used to think that way, but haven't for a long time! I'll have to come up with another solution, if you have any ideas pls send them my way. And this is why I love RUclips, because it's like having neighbors pop over to check out what I'm doing, and people always think of things that I didn't. So thank you for your comments and for watching! 👍
I lived in huntington bch for 26 yrs. . Experienced many many quakes. One of which literally knocked me out of bed. . . SW Montana is the most seismically active area of Montana. 50 plus quakes ranging 4.0 -5.6 magnitude since the early 70's. . Those aren't large, but they are enough to topple top heavy objects. . I would remove the bricks and anchor the stove legs (where the holes are ) down with a couple bolts to the tile floor. and add a short section of vent pipe to the vertical single wall pipe or just add a longer section so you don't need to have a short piece. . Good luck ! . . I love Montana, I may be moving there within a yr. 😊
@@gfkusaka What great feedback! Thank you so much for sharing your experience. While I was reading your second comment here, it gave me a couple of ideas of how I can do that. We want to keep it elevated above the floor, for two reasons, mainly because it gets the hearth too hot (IMHO). The other reason will be a forthcoming video soon 🙂 it's getting almost too warm to use this heater, except for a few hours of the morning, daytime temps are hitting the '40s, So these projects might have to happen over the summer. It needs a cold air intake as well. And a damper in the chimney pipe. Fun stuff! Hey thanks for watching and for your feedback 👍
personally i prefer using heat gun for igniting pellets over blow torch. it is fast and doesn't require buying gas to burn. also main risk you have with a cool chimney is it will increase the risk of creosote buildup and potential for chimney fire. so might require a more frequent cleaning.
@@anesthesiadreamin i use just a cheap Wagner Furno 300 on its high setting which is a 1.2kw heat output (1100F). i use it for pellets and to start charcoal in a chimney starter for bbqing :D saw that trick on some other pellet smokers for starting the pellets on fire and its been great been doing it for years now.
@@JoshMillikangreat info! this is why I love youtube, its like having a neighbor pop over and look over what I am doing and make suggestions - i learn so much from the comments. Thanks for watching and for your feedback👍
@@vjmacintyre I haven't had a backdraft yet. When lighting it with pellets, The torch heat begins the draft, and as the pellets light, the draft just continues easily. When using wood, and starting the fire with some paper, you have to shove the paper into the horizontal burn chamber pretty far so it won't backdraft...but if you light the paper/ fire right at the bottom of the vertical feed tube , The smoke and flame will come backwards toward you, rather than going into the horizontal burn chamber. But like I said, with pellets, I've never had it backdraft.
If I use my pellet oven the whole day on high power I can still touch by hand the pipe of the exhaust. It’s a cheap oven from Italy. But they are efficient cause the don’t let a lot of heat out true. Just the ventilation is annoying.
I like the thermostatic control of a pellet stove, which this one (Liberator) doesn't have. It sounds like the exhaust from a pellet stove is even safer if it's not as hot
@@jjblum3 Ace hardware, I think I even saw them at true value hardware, it's just a 4-in dead end cap, they come in silver, I ended up painting mine satin black, it looks much better I think. If you go that route, make sure to drill the holes with a step drill bit, not a regular bit. The step drill makes it a lot cleaner holes.
Great video, great heater! Going to look into this, my main issue with pellets has been requiring power, and this handily solves that. Have you tried burning other alternative fuels? Cherry pits, corn, etc?
@@anesthesiadreamin The alternates might be lower cost than pellets. Corn that isn't fit for food or feed, etc. I only know that some pellets stoves are multi fuel, definitely check with the manufacturer on yours. I was really excited to find your video. The only other non-powered pellet stove I know of had pretty bad reviews and spotty reliability. Thank you for filming+ posting.
@@om617yota7 IDK where you are located, but the "gamera" is made in Europe, not sure if they ship it to the US. I think it has a pellet option as well. U might check some videos out on that brand, I have never used it, and don't know much about it, but I definitely know I love this liberator 👍
I want to build a scale model of the liberator, could you please give me the dimensions of each part and the steel thickness, I want to put one in my shed in Ireland. great video, I am a new subscriber.
How are they to clean and maintain????I have a Comfort Built and on low it will run a bag a day but i have it set up with a portable 3.6Kw solar generator that will power it if the grid goes down!! It only uses about 45W to run it and 450w to start it so no electricity no problem this generator will run it no problem 24/7.also can run other things off this solar generator when grid goes down. I do like this unit you have can run on split wood when SHTF 🙂
You and I think exactly alike here. We were planning on getting a regular pellet stove, just for the low maintenance, set and forget it, and we figured we'd be running a generator anyway for power for other things If the power went out. But this seems to do the business without electricity, we're getting 20 plus hours out of a 40 lb bag, depending on how we throttle the intake. What my wife likes about it though is she can cook on it, she just made the most amazing lentil soup, cooked it in an hour on top of the rocket heater. And yes, the fuel versatility is nice, sticks from the yard, leftover carpentry scraps, cord wood, scrap wood from the dump , pellets.
@@Drizimar1 sorry, maybe I didn't make it clear, one bag *almost* fills the hopper to the top, and runs for about 24 hours. So one 40 lb bag lasts almost 24 hrs. This is with the intake throttled back, One side plugged , the other with five holes in the plug. So it burns this rate consistently no matter what the outside temperature is, and seems to keep our house warm whether it is below zero or above. The only disadvantage is this is not thermostatically controlled like a regular electric pellet stove, so with this one you can't keep the temperature exactly as 72, it can get a lot warmer. And obviously if you let more air flow through it, it will get even hotter. I'm working on a video of lessons learned, should be coming out in the next couple months. Thanks for your good question!
I would like to have this stove if you say that the exhaust gas is 200° why not power vent it? I would love to have this in my home, but I don’t have a chimney available to put it in? We currently have a regular pellet stove, but I’m sure the temperatures are in access to 300° going out of that, there’s a lot of loss in a standard pellet stove this rocket stove if you power vented it it would still be fabulous!! if they make a power vented kit for it boy we would all love to hear that
Currently we are using Rocky Canyon premium red fir pellets. They are about $8 a bag around here. We have tried lignetics brant of soft wood pellets, they were about six something a bag, but they don't seem to burn as long and produce a bit more Ash. If you have seen youtuber 'firelight' (who has made a bunch of videos on this same liberator heater), he uses Purcell brand of premium fir pellets, and seems to be very happy with that brand. Hey thanks for watching and for your question 😁
@@anesthesiadreamin Of all the videos I have seen on pellet stoves it seems most of them are problematic where the Liberator seems to work fine. But if you are using a bag of pellets per day that is $200-$240/month. Not a cheap source of heat.
@@shanec.7105 pellets cost me between $6 and $8 a bag in my area. That's a 40 lb bag. That burns about 24 hours. I just bought 2 ton pallet of pellet bags, 50 bags, at 40 lb each. That will last me almost 2 months of continuous burning. Cost is about $375 for the pallet of pellets when bought in bulk. I used to get my firewood for $20 a cord, that was permits to cut logs, I would cut about three cords of trees down, which took a solid long day. Bring it home, then spend another day bucking all those logs. Then spend another 2 days splitting all that wood and stacking it. So at least 4 to 5 long days of very hard labor. That would get me through about 3 months of constant burning. It's way easier just to buy the pellets, bring them home, unload them off the trailer and put them on my porch with the forks on the tractor. Many places will deliver them also. So for me it's just a transition, I'm getting older, and it's so much easier just to use the pellets. I dump them in once, and forget about it all day. Wood stove I have to feed every hour or two, cuz we only have pine in this area, so it burns pretty quick. I'm interested in a pellet machine, which some people make on their own, you can buy them, and then use saw dust or wood chips to make your own pellets. But of course you can burn split wood in this liberator rocket heater also, it's just you have to feed it pretty often
I've seen those, do they move air very far? Maybe it depends on the model. We're trying to move hot air down the hall and into the bedrooms. But an Eco fan would be sweet if we ever lost power. Thanks for the recommendation, and for watching 👍
So you are sold on the idea of burning wood pellets now it's time to upgrade to a more efficient and less time consuming heater. May I also add perhaps a little more pleasing on the eye but certainly safer so no burning when touching the exposed metal surfaces. We live in the UK on the Welsh boarders at the top of a hill 452m above sea level and exposed to strong winds coming from the SW. I have a biomass boiler that heats my entire house (780sqm), plus all the hot water we need. It runs from 6am to 10pm seven days a week with a winter outside temperature of around 0°C and an internal temperature of 22°C. Occasionally we may see temperatures dip to -5°C but that's only for a few days. Current outside temperatures during the daytime are about 10°C. We use 15kg of 6mm softwood pellets per day. The feed hopper in the winter is filled just once a week and in the summer filled less than once per month. I empty the ash pan three times a year with each empty having about the same amount of ash you can put on a dinner plate. Apart from filling the feed hopper, this is totally automatic with absolutely no input from me. The boiler was installed 10 years ago in what used to be the tack room of the stables and hot water is pumped underground to the house. We pay typically about £360 per 975kg of pellets (single pallet load) and get through 4x975kg pallets per annum. The only other cost is an annual service (£350) plus a minimal amount of electricity to operate and manage the boilers computer system. The boiler is a German made Windhager, has never missed a beat, nothing has been repaired or replaced. It's exactly as it was installed 10 years ago. The entire boiler is covered with an attractive cover, cherry red and light grey, so no hot surfaces to get burnt on. An added bonus is the computer controller and water manifolds that direct the hot water to the various room radiators etc is installed in a small under stairs cupboard used for coats etc. This room is always warm which is excellent for drying wet coats and muddy boots.
@@TsLeng I'm afraid you are wrong. This is exactly what we do. During the summer when we just need hot water for showers, cleaning etc we use approx one single bag of 15kg pellets per week.
@@simonmusgrovewethey yes in summer that's possible. But it would mean another typo of 4x975kg bags per year. That only average out to 11kg a day. Maybe you just live there in the summer....😂
@@TsLeng if you take an entire year we get through a maximum of four pallets loads of pellets. Each pallet contains 975kg of pellets in either 15 or 18kg bags depending on the supplier. In Europe there is a law that bags like cement or in this case wood pellets, mustn't be heavier than 18kg each to avoid back injuries when lifting them. So to heat the whole house with the central heating and also hot water only in the summer we use 3,900kg but that's a maximum. This year, 2023/4, we had a mild winter with only three days of snow. We got through around 3,400kg in total.
it all depends on how you modulate the air intake, or the damper. So you can really throttle the burn down, or speed it up and make more heat. So with high quality pellets (premium red fir), keeping it at 650F, one 40lb bag lasts about 16 hours. If we throttle it back, a 40lb bag can last up to 24 hours. So thats exaclty 0.75kg/hr to 1.25kg/hr, or 1kg/hr average
If the map gas lights it twice as fast, but costs twice as much, then you aren't trading time for money. You are paying the same amount per light as half as long means half the gas used and a single bottle will last twice as long. You aren't trading anything to use map, but gaining the time saved as a nice bonus. Plus, less resupply, which also saves time.
@@kinderdm You're exactly right. What I also figured out was the torch head on the map gas makes a much bigger flame, but also works on the propane bottle 🙂 so I quit buying MAPP gas LOL
@@NOSUBSCRIBERSWANTED Yes, and that doesn't just happen in video editing, it happens in real life! That dumb dog can disappear and reappear anytime it wants
Cost in SW Montana: Lignetics is about $6 per bag, labeled "soft wood" but seems a bit dustier IMHO. The only other brand I've used is Rocky Canyon, labeled " premium fir pellets"about $8 a bag, but burns noticeably longer, somewhat less Ash, and definitely not dusty when filling up the hopper. So lately we've been buying the Rocky Canyon. Another RUclipsr you may have seen by the name of "firelight" who also makes videos on the Liberator Rocket heater, uses Purcell brand premium fir pellets.
So during the very coldest months, like late December, January, early February, we are burning about a bag a day. Now that it's March, we're burning about one half a bag a day.
Yes! It will run on kindling, but it requires feeding every 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how hard the wood is that you have available. Check my playlist "Liberator" on my channel, you will find some shorts where we burned wood in it right after we bought it. But since have switched to pellets just because we light it and it will run without attendance for almost 24 hours straight. the big advantage to this one is "FUEL VERSATILITY". ruclips.net/user/shorts-rqTv2flhcM
@@anesthesiadreamin I like versatility. I think I didn't make myself clear enough. I meant to use the kindling only to start the initial fire so you wouldn't have to use the torch. Plus I think the fire area might be a little to large, and the steel might cool too quickly for small sticks from the yard. Almost better to go to a Rocket Mass Heater for fuel conservation, but they are generally big, and bulky. But they do have more compact ones now.
@@evvie01 Aha, I see, I have never used a small fire to start the pellets, but that would be a valuable skill if propane not available. I saw one guy use parrafin impregnated with wood shavings and lamp oil to start his pellets. I tried that but wasn't very successful. And yes, we hope to add some "lighter" thermal mass (this is a manufactured home) at some point 🙂 Can I ask - What "more compact ones" do you mean? just a smaller mass bench? please share
@@anesthesiadreamin I replied to this earlier, and posted it. I think someone took it down. I don't know if it was the Author or RUclips either way it didn't stay. I mentioned another website and added a video link. Perhaps they are frowning on that. I will have to not do that in the future. I like Permies though and hope people know about them otherwise. It's really odd though the link glowed blue and everything, I thought it was okay.
@@evvie01 IDK friend, I don't delete posts unless they are vulgar. But even if they are critical of me, I leave them and usually learn from them as well. But I do know about Permies! That's how I first discovered rocket mass heaters, Paul Wheaton, Erica Weisner (IIRC), great people spreading the good news. I built a thermal mass greenhouse (truly passive) and Permies made a link to it. I was planning on putting a RMH in the greenhouse, but found that it never froze inside (build like an earthship so mid 40's F inside even when it was -31F outside) so I didn't need the RMH. That build is on my channel titled "Thermal Mass Greenhouse". Feel free to try to repost. I don't know what RUclips's algorhythm is for posting links, but I would like to see what you wanted to link
So I'm new here and I did subscribe. Great video! When you fill the pellets to the max in the hopper and feed tube how much pellets is that? 20lbs 30lbs 50lbs.......ect ? Also how many square feet is it heating? I'm assuming 1 level home?
@@eddiekytia Yes, I'm sorry I didn't make that clear. Several people have asked about that, and I'm making a follow-up video to answer people 's comments and questions. Hopefully have that in a couple months. One 40 lb bag of pellets fills the hopper almost full, so it may take another 3 or 4 lb to top it off. Our house is 2,800 square feet, but the back bedroom and bathroom are pretty far away, and even with fans it doesn't warm them very well, that's why we cut it off in the evening, and let the propane heat come on overnight to warm the back bedroom and bathroom. And yes, one level home.
As mentioned, you really want to add a fresh air duct to feed the fire with outside air. All wood fired stoves consume a large amount of air. If that air is drawn from the house, besides pumping warm room air up the chimney, it places the house under a vacuum and all that air is replaced by cold outside air thru every crack in the envelope. A sealed combustion air supply will stop this and make the house more comfortable. If you really want to enhance the comfort this heater provides, add a second separate air duct. Run this one to a small computer fan so it blows air against the heat exchanger to heat the fresh outside air. That supply with the fan will add a slight positive pressure to the house and force air out thru the cracks in the envelope, instead of sucking cold air in. I have done this with the last 2 wood stoves I have had and will do it with any other I ever use. The difference in room/house comfort is literally night and day…
This is why it's important to put in a fresh air heat exchanger in any tightly sealed house.
No electricity he says but two blowers the whole day blowing the air around!? That's a lot of energy
And when your fire pumps a ton of air up the chimney, thats what is required to make the space comfortable, fans trying to move the heat back out away from the fire, as the suction from the fire pulls cold air in thru the gaps in walls and floor and pulls it toward the fire. If you eliminate the fire suction with an outside air duct hard plumbed into the fire air supply you stop the air draw from the room and make it a lot nicer heat source. If you further add a positive pressure source AT the stove, you reverse the process as that positive pressure spreads out thru the room flowing toward all the air leaks in the envelope, it carries the heat with it warming the room evenly. Same as he is doing with fans, but a tiny amount of energy and almost no noise to run a 4” computer fan…
You say there is a lot of air going up the chimney, what is that based on? Did you measure it?
@@Richardj410 based on years of practical experience. Do you have a wood stove? Close/block any air vents, so the only way air can get in is thru the door. Start a fire and control the air with door position and you will understand what I am getting at. I shifted from a woodstove to a pellet stove years ago. That was terrible as it has a blower that forces a ton of combustion air into the stove. The house was terrible as it sucked in cold air thru every leak, until I got it setup to use outside air for the combustion feed. Then I added a second air supply to feed the heat exchanger with fresh outside air, and things got quite nice with positive pressure to the stove area. Went back to a woodstove after a few years on the pellet, but kept the outside air feed. Wish I had done the forced outside air feed a decade earlier…
Good video, and we also used a pellet stove for years because propane was so expensive, and a wood stove in the basement also. I enjoyed the many years of country living.
Less work than a traditional wood stove, not that I ever minded the extra work. It just became part of the daily routine that was sort of fun.
I haven't seen many, but I've seen one or two houses built for wood heat with a stove in the basement, and great big grates lined up above it, and other sets of grates all around the perimeter of the house that brought air back down from upstairs.. Convection brought warm air into all 3 floors above it.
You should use a dasy wheel from a Weber grill for air control.
That is a great idea my friend
I did this on a small wood heater and it worked really well. Took about 10 mins to make.
I hope these rocket stoves keep evolving so everyone can share ideas on development. The Russians use a brick stove with a very long horizontal chimney but I think it has slow gas travel to the end of the chimney stack. Greater heat transfer and larger thermal mass of brick work should stay warmer even after fuel goes out.
I think I've seen what you're talking about, the last video I saw of that was in Yakutsk. Also there is a company in the US called "temp cast", they make big masonry heater kits, which allow for a baking oven, but I believe are a smaller scale compared to the Russians style. Indigenous South Americans also make a similar much smaller heater that allows them to bake and cook on top as well. Multipurpose, as they all SHOULD be. Good stuff 👍
@@anesthesiadreamin Looks like that wall has been getting hot, it looks like it has deformed a bit, just like a wood stove shouldn’t you have a deflection plate behind it?
@@Jbmc65 we have talked about that, but haven't done it yet. But you are right, thanks for the reminder. We are talking about putting up a plate to the ceiling spaced from the wall and then building a brick wall to the ceiling for some thermal mass
@@anesthesiadreamin as a test, put a bare thin aluminium sheet, 1-2mm, spaced 10cm from the wall or so (open at the top), bare aluminium reflects IR very very well, space to wall will create a draft which will cool the sheet down, sort of like a chimney, but for room air
but overall this seems a pretty wasteful way to use pellets, if it were a holiday cabin, then fine, but for home IMHO this is not appropriate, I heat a 250sqm old wooden house, with not so great insulation, and use max a bag (15kg) a day when it is around freezing outside, it is purpose built burner though, but also much safer than this setup, forced air, has fuel "disconnect" because it is fed by 2 auger system, one on top of another, gas temp leaving to chimney is just over half what you have here, it heats water for heated floors or radiators, one fill lasts around a week and a half, remove ash once a month, every couple weeks it is advisable to sweep the heat exchanger with a brush (round tubes), it does need a dedicated space for it though, can't put that in a living room
Neat stove!
Put floor fan in cold area. Use it to push the cold air out along the floor. Warm air will be drawn in across the ceiling. Very little effort from the fan is needed since you’re assisting natural convection currents.
Stated another way, when using floor fans, I found that pushing cold air out of an area I want to heat is much easier and more effective than trying to push air in against the natural convection current.
@@JamesWalters1 Yes! It's always easier to push cold denser air than hot thinner air. Address this in my follow-up video, and a lot of other questions and ideas commenters had, the link is at the end of this video you just watched. Thanks for your comment!
Nice. Looks like a good setup for burning free woodchips if you have a dry place to store them. Spread about 1 inch thick on a driveway for 8 hours on a sunny day. You won't get as much burn time, of course, but they are free. Also, I use outside air for combustion. Much more comfortable at lower temperatures.
So did I understand you correctly, you burn wood chips in a rocket heater? Did you happen to make a video of your outside air combustion setup? I need to do that next
Actually, I heat my house with homemade, modified 5-gallon TLUD camp stoves with a heat exchanger. Outside air is vented thru my basement, from my attached garage, and stays plugged when the stove is idle. The air is fed from the bottom. Wood chips are my kindling, as the stove burns from the top down to my feed stock, which is short firewood standing upright. Your setup is better because it feeds constantly. Mine is cheaper, cuz I get my fuel for free. That is why I suggested wood chips. If they will feed without bridging, you could have free fuel.
You will just have to load the hopper more often and avoid big sticks. Edit. After replying to you, I watched your video again. It looks like wood chips would definitely bridge.
@@anesthesiadreamin
@@tonysteinke7234 I live in the UK and am considering off gridding at some point. I understand the benefits of direct air outdoor air system, but could you explain to me "bridging" is thag the fuel setting fire to itself in the hopper? :)
Bridging is the wood chips hanging up somewhere between the hopper and the grate where they are burned. I think the air feed design on this stove prevents any back burning provided a strong draft is maintained.@@smvsspould
@@tonysteinke7234 ah cool good to know, thanks!
It's worth noting that these rocket stove-style heaters can push flue gas horizontally as they don't depend upon the flue for primary draft; the draft is *inside* the stove. Horizontal runs are still dangerous, however, as they can be under positive pressure and thus leak into the house while also collecting creosote; the horizontal run should thus drain to outside (like a plumbing pipe) the house before turning upward.
Sealing the flue and then surrounding it with mud-clay furniture turns creates a DIY mass heater that operates similarly to a masonry heater, but most homes won't have engineered flooring to support that mass unless they're on a concrete slab.
There's a very powerful chimney *inside* these stoves, so they draft very well once hot. However, draft during startup can be an issue with horizontal flue runs, as there's a plug of cold air in the flue between the draft barrel and the vertical exhaust. I'll bet that the Liberator company does not recommend horizontal runs (their website just says to check local codes).
Thus, it's safest to turn the flue up at the stove exhaust as shown in the video, but efficiency will be less optimal as you are using much of the exhausted heat to power the flue draft rather than heat the home; it's still an efficient setup compared with most other solutions, however, so this is really not a problem.
Any exhaust below 212F will inherently produce condensate, which will then collect creosote and drip from the bottom of the flue. Though the draft barrel (it's not a burn barrel, but people might call it that as it's a familiar term) is a good place to check the operating temperature, a thermometer in the flue may be needed to determine the minimum stove temperature needed to keep water from condensing in the flue; except during startup and shutdown, the stove should not be operated at flue temperatures less than 225F.
People have been building these stoves themselves using a steel barrel around a firebrick "chimney" for over 30 years, but I'm glad that a company has turned the concept into a manufactured product.
@@antibrevity very good information! My external flu temperature is typically over 200, but as it gets higher it cools off . The clean out video that I did showed mostly gray Ash and very small amounts . Part of my chimney pipe has the male ends sometimes up and sometimes down , but I haven't had anything leak out onto the outside of the pipe . Pat this is exactly why I love RUclips, there's so many smart people out there that are willing to comment and give their expertise. Thanks for contributing! That was a good read, and I'm sure others will appreciate it also.
Have you considered that it might not be the MAP gas that's lighting the pellets faster, but instead the torch head you're using? I have both of those torch heads, and the one you have on the MAP gas is a much more efficient design.
Thats funny, I just realized that when lighting the heater about 20 minutes ago when I switched the torch heads and got about the same bigger flame out of the propane bottle. That will save me some money! This is why I love youtube, I (and others) learn so much from the comments, so thanks for watching and for posting 👍
Oh, and if you don't mind me asking, my understanding is MAPP is no longer available, so what do you use MAP Pro gas for, if it really doesn't burn that much hotter than propane?
Thanks for the review! If there is anything else we can help you with please feel free to let us know!
When I say we love this heater, I mean both my wife and I, it's a competition in the morning to see who can get up the earliest first to get to light it. Burning pellets has decreased our workload significantly compared to bringing in tons of firewood and feeding a woodstove frequently. It has just changed our lives for the better. Great job guys!!!
Using a "step drill" instead of a twist drill makes much cleaner holes in sheet metal. Where do you source your pellets and about how much do they cost? The old middle school (now torn down) here in Grand Rapids MN converted their boiler to run on pellets which were apparently available inexpensively locally. Not sure if the new middle school uses pellets.
Going back to 1982-1985 we put a Shenandoah wood stove in front of our fireplace, 1300sqft home. Ran the exhaust into a plate into the fireplace. Heated 3+ years with only wood. The gas company came by to inspect. We had a pot of water on the stove, humidity and heat. It was great but I got tired of cutting trees and splitting the wood. The pellets seem to be the easier solution. Thanks.
In addition (I gather) this system uses MUCH Less wood, I don't know what a 45# bag of pellets but I'd bet is is much cheaper than constantly feeding a conventional wood stove for 2 days. It that a good comparison?
@@steventrostle1825 No, the way I look at it--the wood saves me even more money on the monthy gym membership as I work out in the "Wood Gym" lol....
so the hopper and feed channel holds exactly 1 40 lb bad of pellets? Need to know some reference
Sorry I didn't make that clear, the hopper and feed tube can hold a little bit more than 1 40 lb bag, in other words one 40 lb bag fills up the hopper to about 1 in below the top edge. So you could squeeze a bit more in
Question, instead of the blowtorch, why not lit a tiny bonfire into the firebox to light the pellets?
Interesting video but why do you shut it down at night
Safety precautions. It's an open fire after all, you never know what might happen
I was wondering the same thing our PS is our main heat it runs 24/7. How is it an open fire? It's contained hmmmm?
Simpler starting for your stove than a torch: buy/make some BBQ wax cubes / nests / whatever non-accelerant based charcoal / wood starters. They're basically like candles and can start charcoal so they should be able to start pellets.
In France we have a company selling smoke duct with a double layer allowing to bring fresh air from the outer part of the tube and eliminating smokes with the inner part
What if you have no access to pellets?
ok....that is far better than my pellet stove ! I have a tractor supply PP130 that I have had to modify ( had it for 6~7 yrs)... I use a 40# bag a day of wood pellets, and the stove runs 24/7 when it's cold outside (below 50 deg.) I had to replace a room fan and an exhaust fan about a year before the control circuit board died... at seeing the price to the circuit board I decided to replace the circuit board with a simple timer off Amazon... and it's been working great sense
the efficiency of your stove is impressive I estimate about 1/2 bag of pellets a day for my use....and that is impressive especially when you consider if the electric power quits we are without heat ! .....
I made a pellet stove like yours for the shop but have never hooked it up it uses about a quart of pellets in 8 hrs ! it's efficiency is astounding but it is about 1/3 the size of yours
the burn basket is only 3" in diam. but burns almost as hot as yours....
I think in this instance that smaller is better you burn less pellets but get the same heat and that is a Win-Win !!!!
@@bobkelly2447 Great information! Did you make a video on your build? I would love to see it. The only disadvantaged the liberator has compared to a regular electric pellet stove is there's no thermostat control, it just cranks out heat. That's why our house gets up to about 80°. Sometimes inside the kitchen living room and great room. With this one, you can't throttle it down even lower so it burns at less than 400°, but liberator says then the rocket burn gets very inefficient, and will make a lot more soot. So for the size of the burn chamber/ pellet tube/ heat chamber /exhaust, I'm not sure this one can run a whole lot slower and still be efficient. But again, I'm no expert . I would really like to see your build but also how you installed the timer on the electric one. Hey thanks for sharing, and for your comments.
I wounder if a car throttle body would work for air intake control.
Been planning on building one of these for awhile now hopefully by next winter I will be using one I built
If u make a video drop me a link. I've always fabbed my own stuff also but I just dont have time to build one. I would like to see what u came up with with if u can 👍
Great job by the way----we need this sort of thing now.
I just worry about choking it down that far and reducing the draft might cause the fire to burn up the hopper tube and catch your hopper on fire. Have you ever seen anything like that or had smoke coming out of the top of the hopper?
yes, and you are correct, we just had that happen last week, we had the flue choked down, and the intake throttled way back, and the wind was blowing hard outside, and the hopper ran out of pellets, and when I opened the hopper to refill it, there was some smoke inside. (reverse chimney?) So I think a perfect combination of everything in that case, but I think you are right on, choking down the flue pipe is likely the biggest contributor. But also I have neither had nor heard of the pellets burning back up the feed tube. Just like a rocket heater with wood being fed in it, the fire never comes back up the wood that's inside the feed tube. Great discussion, thanks for the comment!
5:05 why are you holding it? i have a can that holds mine at the right height, i ignite the flame, put it down, set a timer for 3 minutes and make a cup of tea while it heats the puck
do you have a picture or video online??? I would like to see it!
@@anesthesiadreamin i made a video of it but can't link it here
@@markifi okay, can you just give me the video title? Then I'll search for it
@@markifi never mind! I found it under your channel 🙂 thanks for letting me know 👍
Do you have to make your own air inlet covers with a new stove? What comes with the stove's original engineering?
@@wdwilson397 those inlet covers do not come with the stove, nor do they supply any. They are not really needed for it to run. I just did that to prolong the burn. Be sure to check out the video at the end of this video, there's a box link there, and it explains a bit further why I did that. And of course, if you choose to make a couple plugs and experiment with burn rate, they're only like five bucks a piece
Can the liberator rocket heater be placed just outside of the fireplace firebox & have the exhaust ducted into a fireplace & up the flue?
@@PBoss0 I have seen people do that on RUclips, but personally I would definitely get a professional installer to work the chimney part
If you put the fan on the floor blowing away from the bedrooms, the warm air at the ceiling will go into the bedrooms.
Ce distanta este intre capatul tevii cu peleti si cosul de ardere (din poza facută in interiorul sobei nu pot observa)
You might want to think about getting a catalytic compuster for less emissions and a cleaner chimney as well as extra heat. You should also make sure that you have maximum secondary burn of the wood gas.
You also mentioned you'd like a fan on the top of the heater. You should look into stirling engines. They use the heat from the heater to turn in to mechanical work for a fan for instance.
I have a Harman Pellet stove and burn 1.5 bags (60#) on a cold day in 24 hrs. How many pounds do you burn in a 24hr day? Thanks
So if we throttle the intake down, where it burns about 400° on top of the heater, we can get 24 hours out of a 40 lb bag of pellets.
@@anesthesiadreamin Where I live a 40 lb bag of pellets costs around $9. When I first put the stove in they were $3.
@@yori4666I pay $6 a bag at Menards.
That's crazy. My log stove will run 24 hours on $3 worth of wood. That's the absolute worst-case scenario running it at max output to keep a drafty 3600 sqft house overly warm in the coldest weather we've ever had.
On normal days, I run it less than half the day, and it burns less than $1 worth of wood. I basically just load a full fire box worth of wood in the late evening and there will still be a good bed of coals 24 hours later to auto-start another load.
I have a few questions- (I currently operate a woodstove during the heating season in Vermont) How many pellets come in a bag and what is their price per bag?- what portion of a bag fills the hopper? Is there creosote like with a woodstove, in the chimney pipe? I sweep my own chimney and pipes- this is a twice a year chore. Where do you store the pellets? I assume they can't be stored where they can absorb moisture.
Good questions, prior to this we used the wood stove to supplement our heat in Colorado. So pellets come in 40 lb bags, they're about 6 to 8 bucks a bag, one bag fills the hopper up to about 1 in below the top edge, absolutely no creosote because the burn is so complete in the vertical burn chamber, it even Burns the secondary gases, so there's very little Ash burning pellets. We've cleaned out the stove after one month of burning pellets, and got about a cup of Ash out of the stove itself, there was nothing in the chimney pipe but a little bit of pellets come in a waterproof plastic bag, We still store them in a garage to make sure they stay dry in case there's a leaky bag, and also to keep them warmer. Murdochs sells them and stores them outside in the snow 😂
Hi..just wanted to let you know that we've learned a lot from watching your videos. Thanks for putting them up. Wanted to share with you as far as a mass goes. We didn't have a chance to add a mass before the snow flew ..but got bricks and surrounded the canister..they hold the heat very well and extend the heating time. Wanted to add a picture..but not seeing a way to do that.
@@julietrettell6452 no, you can't upload a pic, but you can upload a video! Do you have a RUclips channel yet? It's easy to create if you don't have one already. And then just shoot video on your phone, if you don't like it reshoot it, don't worry about editing it, and then upload it. Super easy. If you upload a video of your setup, I would really like to see it. I like your idea of the surrounding thermal mass, that's easy to put up and take down 👍
@anesthesiadreamin thanks for the reply. I'd rather not put it on YT..but if you're on Messenger I'd send you pics or video personally.
Where did you get the glass for your stove mine is steel .On Amazon I bought a 4 inch damper used a can that fit in their works good .I also put a fan at the side of my stove puts nice even air out .I have the older model and have the newer where you can clean it 😊
this pyroceramic glass is from Wood stove fireplace glass out of Illinois. It measures 5 13/16 in square, and is 3/16 thick. I ordered it online at woodstove-fireplaceglass.com and it took about a week for it to arrive. On their home page click glass, pyroceram, shop by custom size, rectangle/square, then you can put in the dimensions you want, and the thickness. I don't get anything from this company, I just like their product. Have you made any videos? I would like to see your setup and how it works! Thx for watching and for your feedback!
Why not stepless air adjustment??
When starting pellets, I find that if you squirt some alcohol on the pellets and light them, they start right up usually only one application will do it.
@@lifequest7453 good to know! You mean JD or like rubbing alcohol🤣 JK. I have wondered about lamp oil as well
@@anesthesiadreamin He's talking about the gelled alcohol for starting fires.
@@jlsracing997 Im talking about the alcohol you can buy at a hardware store and you put it in a squirt bottle.
@@lifequest7453 The gelled stuff lasts alot longer when burning as regular isopropyl alcohol evaporates very quickly.
@@jlsracing997 Have not had a problem with liquid Alcohol
Your 45/45 elbow setup is fine. I’ve burned wood for over 50 years and my stack has a similar setup. Really nice heat source you have. Also, running a pipe horizontally is a great way to have no draft and nice hot chimney fires.
That sounds sarcastic.
@ Sorry you can’t discern fact from sarcasm. ….. Troll.
@ And you are either not smart or a troll. Do you even know what sarcasm is?
@@MeteCanKarahasan as he said running a chimney horizontal is not a way to run chimney pipe , you always want an incline unless you are running a mechanically induced draft. and the reason is simple if draft slows an ash or particle build up, as the build if they get built up enough the close down the size of the pipe restrict flow but also can cause a hot spot where ash can become a focal hot poit and even ash can flash over sending a shower of fine ash spark up chimney that can cause other issues, simple way to think think of chimney and skoes as water but flowling in reverse . where do you get you best flow fastest and most con sistant flow ? its not on a flat horiizontal run its on a vertical.
So way back in the day, one of my relatives had a fireplace that used a quartz rod through the back of the firebox to close off the airflow when it got too hot. The expansion of the rod over it's length pushed a lever arm that blocked off the inlet air in some manner, I never got a satisfactory explanation. A mechanical system like this would be pretty high on my list up upgrades, but with google being the dumpster fire that it is good luck finding any useful information on such a thing. A heavy duty bi-metallic coil might be easier to source and implement.
That quartz rod thing sounds like what Doble steam car used for operating control box of its steam generator. Look into Jay Leno's video about it
How many bags of pellets to fill up the hopper ?
@@maxnemo1643 it holds a bit over 40 lbs, so a bit more than one bag
Always wanted to try one, Now I am looking at ways to adapt one to my house.
I can say with all confidence now, I wish we had done this a long time ago. I don't get anything from liberator, We just really like this heater, My wife and I are sort of in competition to who can get up the earliest in the morning to start it 😂
Sir, do you use a dehumidifier around the house? Because that is the best way to increase the relative temperature if heat doesn't collect dew due to increased water carrying capacity from higher temperature.
@@MeteCanKarahasan You are right, the area we live in has very low relative humidity. That would make a big difference! Thank you for the tip 👍
Always wondered how welding on some radiator fins made of 3/16" mild steel and a little shrouidng around with expanded metal as a gaurd would do, bet it will heat up the place even faster.... still, thanks for showing us. and even in a pinch, can take out basket, put in a shelf and use scrap twigs and offcuts.
I've been wondering the same thing, also wondering about attaching a fan to some radiator fins like you're describing. Now I just might have to build it 🙂
@@anesthesiadreamin maybe just use a couple of those heat powered wood stove fans to blow maybe off a reflector... Might be worth two or maybe three mounted along somewhere... in case of power outage, or to eliminate electric fan altogether. Cheers from Alberta.
Putting on fins might make the burn barrel too cool for complete combustion, and could increase particulates and coke up the exhaust. I'd talk to the liberator guys to make sure.
@@timothyblazer1749 You are exactly right, I spoke with them about a week ago and they said optimal burn temp at the "bullseye" of the top should be 450-650, higher wears out the liner/burn tube faster, below 450 is suboptimal burn with potential for creosote buildup. I will definitely check with them, they are super nice and very helpful. Hey thanks for watching and for the good suggestion 👍
If you get one of those fans that converts electricity from heat you can blow the heat off the top pushing the heat downwards instead of rising
They don't work. Good for looking at, educational for children but that's it. The amount of electricity produced is only sufficient to turn a fan whose blades are not designed for air flow.
@@tomjohnson7508 You are refering to the Peltier effect where heat is converted into electricity / thermoelectric effect. Sadly the amount of electricity produced is typically only sufficient to rotate the blades on an electric motor but not enough power to move air. These fans are excellent teaching tools but useless as a practical fan. Most are located on a wood stove or similar where natural air convection is greater than anything a Peltier fan can manage.
How did your homeowners insurance respond to the Liberator stove?
It's UL approved and EPA certified. So it should be the same as any other wood stove with respect to insurance.
Great video! These have some learning curves! Great to share notes!
Doesn’t the wall next to it, get awfully hot?
We have a vertical desk about the same distance from our stove, as yours is to the wall-maybe slightly farther away...
I had to cover its side all the way up, with heavy duty aluminum foil to shield it.
Also had to hang some foil as a screen to protect any using the desk, from getting too hot, & another on the other side to protect anyone sitting in the rocking chair there!
Hot, these stoves!
His perked air intake cap is a great simple control on how hot it gets.
I like my air intake damper, better….
Old fireplace has an ash-dump hole, so I used 4” aluminum drier duct parts, including a damper (had to make one using a can lid + a long bolt for the knob), for fresh air intake directly to one of the air intakes. Could add a 2nd one, if needed. But one’s working well here.
Had to do it…
Even our old leaky tract house was too tight!?… throttling the burn in our rocket stove (or any other stove).
Now, can close that damper while firing the stove up, to stop smoke from back-flushing into the room; then close the fire door & open the damper once it’s going.
It looks kinda clunky, but efficient. I put a solid cap on the other air intake.
A minor glitch: The pellet flow controller slide-flap:
It needs fiddly-carefully adjusted it to the very edge, to be sure the full-round of the drop-pipe is full-open; fraction of that, even a sliver, impeding pellet-drop, results in pellets jamming & stopping our rocket stove.
Mystery of the rocket stove:
No clue why, but, the hearth on the left side of the stove gets palpably hotter than on the right side, even tho the cool air intake is on that left side..!?
We buy the lowest cost pellets, & check that bags have not gotten wet, or smashed into dust-but the dust does burn, too.
Very loosely figured, we still spent less $$ on pellets last winter, than the previous similar winters’ electric heat bills, by maybe about $40. USD.
And it felt so good!
Hardest impediment to installing ours:
…couldn’t find ANY contractor of any kind, to simply push the button on the pulley, to pull the chimney liner up our old chimney.
I cleared-out the rotted damper, & modified the “shelf” to be wide enuf to put the liner up. DH made the frame to mount the pulley onto, to fit the top of chimney.
We had everything set to go-just needed someone competent to climb the 15’ ladder-neither of us belonged up the ladder.
Finally, after 2 years, a neighbor took pity on us, & climbed that ladder….so, last winter was the 1st time using our rocket stove.
Once that got pulled up enuf (it went fast), I stuffed special high-temp insulation around the lower end to fill in the chimney space, & neighbor used more of that to block space around the top of the liner, attach the stainless steel flat-cap over the sleeve/chimney, & reinstalled the screened topper. I used 2 adjustable pipe clamps at liner top, to stop it sliding back down, & put bricks under the bottom L to support it at the bottom, above the fireplace floor, & put in a cleanout T btwn the stove & the L.
There’s a ceramic insulation board wrapped with foil, installed on the hearth, under the stove. That thing gets bloody melt-down hot under the firebox! I didn’t want to have to repair heat-damaged hearth tiles anytime in the projected future.
That special insulation board is brittle, hence covered by foil (or repurposed cookie sheet)-it fits almost exactly between the legs of the stove, which sits on the hearth. A recycled aluminum pan sits on that board, & slides out to scoop ashes into.
Got the high-temp insulation & board from WallyWorld online, as were the S/S chimney liner & parts.
Not all chimneys draw.
Our brick insult to chimney builders everywhere, is over 40 years old; it’s 15’ tall, high enuf that air flow does not compete with roof peak-it Should draw, fine….
…but for 8 years, we could not get it to draw at all, even after I opened its throat to put the liner thru. Not even when I stacked bricks to reduce the fireplace opening.
The old rotting insert had been installed wrong, & there was never any rain protection up top. The only hope we had was to install the liner right.
Eventually, the plan is to get a piece of heat resistant stove glass to use as fire door, to get a flame-view -there’s a place online that will make them to order-be sure to measure twice so only order once!
They can make it with a hole to put a handle in the glass-far better than trying to pinch-hold hot glass with thick gloves. Just be sure the handle you choose can withstand that high heat.
Glass expands at different rate than steel-be sure to measure slightly smaller than the interior slot-width, to prevent glass getting stuck in slot from heat expansion. Even the original metal door on ours, gets stuck too easily.
I like how his glass is taller than the bracket- of need to use gloves to pull it out.
These stoves can heat upwards of 2000 sq.ft., but might need fans to boost it around your layout. Ours needs fans to boost it, even in our semi-open-plan.
I had to install hall doors to subdivide resident’s spaces, but made transoms over them.
Got transom fans (very quiet, adjustable & reversible) to go over a couple.
Also, there are the heat-generated-electric stove fans-several configurations, to put on top of a wood stove. I set ours on an angle, so it’s not blowing forward at the pellet bin. Very quiet.
Those seem to have been much better than the noisy big fans.
Cats? Ours are curious when it’s being started, but when it gets hot, they keep away.
Dogs? Usually smart enuf to keep safe.
Kids? Impaired adults? Rowdy teens?…Put a safety fence around the whole installation!!
Reason the map pro lights faster is the torch head. If you use that head on your propane it will burn just as fast. They call it a rose bud head.
@@johnhess3091 Thanks! So I found out shortly after I shot this video. Using the bigger torch on the propane cans will save some money for sure. I actually addressed this in my questions answered follow-up video, the link is at the end of this video. Thanks for your feedback
Screw a disc with holes on one half onto a damper cap with most of one half side cut away and you can turn it to uncover more or less holes.
@@1kreature You mean like a barbecue grill I think? I almost made one like that, but I ended up doing a cold air intake, that link is at the end of this video
@@anesthesiadreamin You drill holes in the cap and a lid the same, so that when the holes align you get plenty air, but when holes do not align it chokes air off.
i.ebayimg.com/images/g/wCEAAOxyRhBS8nEX/s-l400.jpg
Great video thanks for sharing in detail. I would like to know how big is your house and how much bags it takes to fill the heater for as you say a whole Day? Thanks that would help a lot.
@@nicomeer934 Great question! I answered that and a few other questions that commenters asked in another video. That video link is at the end of this video you just watched, just look for a box at the end of the video and click it
Can you use corn instead of wood pellets?
I am also in SW Montana. I see the thermometer on the top says Silverbow Hearth and Home. Is that were you got it? I am trying to find who sells them around here.
good observation! I don't know of a local retailer, I bought this one directly through Liberator at rocketheater.com and paid for shipping. Prepper Hideout in Sheridan, WY has them on their website but I am not sure if they actually stock them. I saw one randomly a few years ago in a Colorado hardware store, but they only had one. Maybe call your local woodstove shops/installers if you want to try to save on shipping, you just might find a better deal, or maybe as a retailer they could get them from Liberator cheaper and/or shipped to them cheaper. Definitely worth a phone call
@@anesthesiadreamin Thank you!
Invest in a Stirling Engine fan. You just place them on the top if your fireplace, and when they get warm they turn on all by themselves. Requires no power, just heat.
Insufficient power. He needs a 24 or a 30" wall fan, they mount to the wall and would be perfect to blow across the top of the stove and from there to other fans depending on how big his house is and how it's configured.
I think the BBQ GreenEGG has a after market damper with a nob adjustment for the intake vent.
@@crashbandit9949 yes! I think that would work well 👍
What stops it from running away and burning up the feed tube and into the hopper???
@@tinaann3323Great question, a lot of people ask that, and I explain that in the second video, the link is at the end of this video that you just watched. Be sure to check it out. Thanks for watching!
So you are doing a 12 hour burn for under ten dollars ? Also what keeps the burn from going up the feed pipe to the hopper ? It would be cool if you could incorperate a large mass of concrete that would turn it into a mass heater and even further its efficiency. Cheers from Canada !
Yes, it seems a lot of people are adding mass to this and getting good results. And yes, a 12-hour burn at minimum. Usually around 18 per 40 lb bag of pellets. And the air coming down around the pellet feed tube hits the burn chamber where the actual fire is , and makes The flame burn upside down, and then the flame Burns into the burn chamber, So no chance of it burning back up the feed tube. Great questions! Thanks for watching 👍
Thank you for sharing. Is the reason for placing the heater on bricks simply so you don’t have to bend down so low to ignite the pellets and for more space on the clean out on the backside? Also, have you ever considered adding an outdoor air intake on the opposite 4” opening where you have the damper cap?
Absolutely, when spring comes I will be adding a cold air intake.
When the heater was on the tile hearth, it was getting the hearth very hot. So I raised it up on 2 bricks, which I have seen others on youtube do as well. Check the playlist "Liberator" on my channel, there are several more "short" videos that explain a few more things. Thanks for watching, and for the questions! 😁
thanks I'm looking at getting one of these, for pellets and maybe modified to burn waste oil.
I've been wondering about waste oil, the only thing is I think we'd have to be careful about how much, because liberator says running temps over 700° can cause the internals to wear out faster. So you need to control how much heat the oil burning is making. Typical oil burners have A lot of heat go right out the chimney, and the rocket heater like this one traps all the heat in the top, so it can get pretty dang hot. If you do this, I'd love to see a video on it!
But also, I just remembered, their instructions say to not use any kind of accelerants. So I'm sure it would void the warranty 🙂
Have you considered adding a thermal fan, or two?
@@__WJK__ absolutely, We just haven't invested in them yet. Those would be great for circulating air if the power goes out. Currently we're just using a couple floor fans
What about during a week long power outage. How would you circulate all that heat ?
@@flatheadfletch A few ways. Put a plug on your furnace power and plug it into an inverter that's clipped to your car battery, idle your car and your HVAC fan will run. Of course you have to store some gas, which we do, another video on my channel. That's one way we're planning on having backup. The other is solar generators, I'm actually building a couple as we speak, the videos should be out in a few weeks, and those can run an HVAC fan as well, or just simple floor fans. Also our home has generator back up, which could run the heater, or just use a small Generator to run simple fans to circulate the heat. But even if none of that worked, we could keep all the doors open, open all the cabinets under the sinks, and just crank this heater up to where the main rooms are 85°, and then just by radiation it should keep the rest of the house from freezing. That's the Hope anyway, we've never had to try it yet 🤣 although this Liberator did work for about 4 to 5 hours last winter when it was -41 and we lost power. It literally kept our house warm even when it was that cold. ruclips.net/user/shortspm0hwWld8rQ?si=uCSdvvOWon7lHI57
how many ibs of pellets do you use a day
@@mattlaurareimer3074 about 40# in 24 hrs (one bag)
If you drop the glass in and on top the propane torch, the pellets will set fire much faster.
So is it just the downward draft of the air intake that keep the fire from climbing up into the pellet hopper? Very cool setup!
yes, exactly. The heat rising up the chimney is enough to make a "pre" draft in the feed tube, so the flame literally burns upside down and then laterally in the burn chamber (with pellets). When using wood (without the pellet hopper), the wood actually contacts the bottom of the burn chamber and the flame in that case burns laterally
@@anesthesiadreamin Awesome!
It's more the torch on the bottle than the gas that makes it start faster.
@@freedomfan3277 You are so correct! I actually talked about it that in the follow-up video, the link is at the end of this video you just watched
You should make it so it doubles as a smoker
You should put a 24 or a 30" wall fan on the wall to do what you said around 17:00.
If its a rocket stove...and really so efficient...does it need a chimney clean?
Time will tell! We inspected the chimney after one month of burning, it had a fine layer of dust accumulated on the inside, barely noticeable. I have heard people that use home made rocket mass heaters clean theirs but just out of abundance of caution and usually get very little buildup out... Liberator recommends having the chimney cleaned twice during the burning season. Great question, I am going to make a "youtuber questions answered" video soon, and I will include this one in it. Thanks for watching, and for your question!
Do the pellets ever bridge/clog in the feed tube? Thanks.
As long as the "cut off plate" is fully removed, the pellets feed fine. When we light it, you pull this plate out so the pellets fall down the tube into the burn basket, and I have tried to ~barely~ leave the plate inserted so I don't have to put it on the floor, but that seems to disrupt feeding (sometimes, not all the time). Also, if we try to pack pellets into the hopper, like we over fill it and push them down to try to get the lid closed, then they will jam. So just dump a bag in, don't spread them out all even and level, don't overfill it and try to compact them into the hopper. Today it's been running since 6am, now 9:30pm, haven't touched it since 6AM, not one issue, feeding fine. Great question, I should add that into a follow up video. Thanks for watching!
Can you use fatwood to start it?
I am going to buy a liberator stove .
Can you please tell me how long the chimney run is ?
@@johnlogan4053 We have 11-ft ceilings, so our chimney is about 15 ft tall
Very nice heater. What stops the fire going up the pellet feed tube though?
As an idea for the damper, perhaps you could put a sliding plate which covers or opens the amount of holes in your current fitting then you could adjust as you like.
@@paullewis252The rocket part is what keeps the fire from bringing back up the feed tube. If you look closely, the flame is actually burning upside down. So a combination of the draft pulling the flame into the burn chamber, and also the air rushing down around the feed tube both work in combination to keep the flame burning where it's supposed to... And yes, that sliding plate would work well, I almost did that with this design, but this was so easy and ended up leaving it like this. Also considered a regular damper on a tube stuck in the side, may try that this winter. The liberator people actually recommended putting a damper in the chimney as the best way to control the burn, and also to trap more heat. That will be an upcoming video where I discuss all that. Hey great observations, thanks for your questions, and thanks for watching!
Ok Thankyou for the clarification 👍
Love this!! Eric, do you think it would work well in my shop for continuous heat?
Idk how it would work for a building with very tall ceilings. Our house has 10 and 1/2 ft ceilings, and it keeps it very warm. IIRC, your building is super well insulated, so it may do very well
Since the night is colder, why do you shut it off at night? Is it unsafe to run unattended?
Lots of people asked this same question, and I didn't make it clear why we do that. Basically the bedroom/bath furthest from the heater doesn't get warm enough from this heater because it is so far away, and my wife wants a warm bathroom in the morning, so we let this burn out around 9 or 10PM and the forced air heat comes on overnight and keeps the back bedroom/bathroom warm. We have not had issues with leaving it unattended, and yes it will burn all night as long as you keep it loaded with pellets. Be sure to check out the "questions answered" video link at the end of this video.
I'm curious what the efficiency is. I've thought about adding a pellet stove in my MIL suite but after researching it seems heat pumps are cheaper to run until you hit maybe 15-20F, depending on COP.
Yes I have never done the math. This purchase was for fuel versatility and to be able to work without power. We ALMOST put heat pumps in
@@anesthesiadreamin DIY mini splits are $1500 for 24k BTU, no vac lines that thread on.
How low can you run this ?
@@Cire3PC Liberator says to not run it less than 350 degrees (measured on the top) because it makes the burn inefficient and increases soot production
Its the toech not the gass. As you point out the gas temp is not much hotter, but the torch you have on the blue bittle is much lower btu than the pro torch you habe on the map bottle.
Swap torches on the bottles and youll see the blue out oerform the yellow.
thanks, I discovered that last week! And you are exactly right, the propane flame burns just as big. Thanks for your comment! Cheers
This reminded me of that really old tv show Home Improvement where the dad makes things in the garage and the guy next door (Frankenstein munster guy-fred Gwynne) is looking over the fence yard
Great video, I have an American Harvest pellet stove that I have been using for the past 10 + years. Just doing a little research on these Rocket Heaters to see how well they work and whats all involved with venting etc. Can these heaters be vented out the side of the house or are they required so much vertical pipe? Also does the hopper for the pellets hold a 40lb bag of pellets or more? Again, nice video.
@@markr6937 I've seen people do that on other RUclips videos , where they run the chimney through the wall and then vertical again once it's outside . I don't have any experience with that . But If you go to the website rocketheater.com, and look under their FAQ page, you will see installation instructions, and there they go into details about recommendations. And yes, the pellet Hopper holds a bit over 40 lb of pellets. Be sure to check out the link at the end of this video for the "questions answered" video, where I discuss the cold air intake, how much the hopper holds, etc. Thanks for watching! And for your question. The people at Liberator are very helpful, I've used their "contact us" link several times for questions I had before I bought one
I have a question. Where do you get the pellets for the stove? I have been trying to find some for my pellet patio heater and it’s not available anywhere in my area. Only pellets for a barbecue pit, but that is expensive.
@@Bro_Jared I have bought them from Murdochs, Tractor Supply, and most ranch/farm stores sell them, my ACE hardware does also. Saw them at bulk stores also like Costco and Three Bears Alaska
You could totally make an adjustable baffle on the air intake
I think from a process control pov, it would be best to have a PID controller adjust the baffle according to the exhaust chimney temperature
And then you could tune it by adjusting the setpoint of the chimney exhaust
Sounds to me like you need to buy one and make some videos for the rest of us 🙂
@@anesthesiadreamin Except I'm planning on quitting my job in a couple months and throwing away all my stuff except for what i can carry on my bike. I'm going to become a litter picking bike tourist called Johnny Litter Bags
I just gotta write my story in a succinct way to the judge so that he will cut me loose
But SOME DAY I would like to find a home, and when I do that place is going to be rocking and tuned
Why do you shut it down at night?....and what's your overnight heat source?
That is a fantastic system. . . My only concern is a earthquake when the stove is burning and you are away from your home and the stove falls off the bricks. Potential leaving the stove laying on its side or uneven while a burn is underway !! Could it ignite the hopper reservoir or spill hot pellets on the surrounding areas ? Other than that, I think pellet stoves are great.
Yes you are right, I hadn't thought of that. When we lived for a couple years in SoCal, I used to think that way, but haven't for a long time! I'll have to come up with another solution, if you have any ideas pls send them my way. And this is why I love RUclips, because it's like having neighbors pop over to check out what I'm doing, and people always think of things that I didn't. So thank you for your comments and for watching! 👍
I lived in huntington bch for 26 yrs. . Experienced many many quakes. One of which literally knocked me out of bed. . . SW Montana is the most seismically active area of Montana. 50 plus quakes ranging 4.0 -5.6 magnitude since the early 70's. . Those aren't large, but they are enough to topple top heavy objects. . I would remove the bricks and anchor the stove legs (where the holes are ) down with a couple bolts to the tile floor. and add a short section of vent pipe to the vertical single wall pipe or just add a longer section so you don't need to have a short piece. . Good luck ! . . I love Montana, I may be moving there within a yr. 😊
@@gfkusaka What great feedback! Thank you so much for sharing your experience. While I was reading your second comment here, it gave me a couple of ideas of how I can do that. We want to keep it elevated above the floor, for two reasons, mainly because it gets the hearth too hot (IMHO). The other reason will be a forthcoming video soon 🙂 it's getting almost too warm to use this heater, except for a few hours of the morning, daytime temps are hitting the '40s, So these projects might have to happen over the summer. It needs a cold air intake as well. And a damper in the chimney pipe. Fun stuff! Hey thanks for watching and for your feedback 👍
personally i prefer using heat gun for igniting pellets over blow torch. it is fast and doesn't require buying gas to burn. also main risk you have with a cool chimney is it will increase the risk of creosote buildup and potential for chimney fire. so might require a more frequent cleaning.
I'm gonna try that! What gun do u use? And at what temp?
@@anesthesiadreamin i use just a cheap Wagner Furno 300 on its high setting which is a 1.2kw heat output (1100F). i use it for pellets and to start charcoal in a chimney starter for bbqing :D
saw that trick on some other pellet smokers for starting the pellets on fire and its been great been doing it for years now.
@@JoshMillikangreat info! this is why I love youtube, its like having a neighbor pop over and look over what I am doing and make suggestions - i learn so much from the comments. Thanks for watching and for your feedback👍
what about backdrafting? im intrigued!! very cool
@@vjmacintyre I haven't had a backdraft yet. When lighting it with pellets, The torch heat begins the draft, and as the pellets light, the draft just continues easily. When using wood, and starting the fire with some paper, you have to shove the paper into the horizontal burn chamber pretty far so it won't backdraft...but if you light the paper/ fire right at the bottom of the vertical feed tube , The smoke and flame will come backwards toward you, rather than going into the horizontal burn chamber. But like I said, with pellets, I've never had it backdraft.
If I use my pellet oven the whole day on high power I can still touch by hand the pipe of the exhaust. It’s a cheap oven from Italy. But they are efficient cause the don’t let a lot of heat out true. Just the ventilation is annoying.
I like the thermostatic control of a pellet stove, which this one (Liberator) doesn't have. It sounds like the exhaust from a pellet stove is even safer if it's not as hot
What size are those caps you have on the air intake? Where did you get them? Thanx for the great video.
@@jjblum3 Ace hardware, I think I even saw them at true value hardware, it's just a 4-in dead end cap, they come in silver, I ended up painting mine satin black, it looks much better I think. If you go that route, make sure to drill the holes with a step drill bit, not a regular bit. The step drill makes it a lot cleaner holes.
Great video, great heater! Going to look into this, my main issue with pellets has been requiring power, and this handily solves that.
Have you tried burning other alternative fuels? Cherry pits, corn, etc?
I have not, but a couple other commenters have asked about that. And I have to admit I didn't know you could burn those
@@anesthesiadreamin The alternates might be lower cost than pellets. Corn that isn't fit for food or feed, etc. I only know that some pellets stoves are multi fuel, definitely check with the manufacturer on yours.
I was really excited to find your video. The only other non-powered pellet stove I know of had pretty bad reviews and spotty reliability. Thank you for filming+ posting.
@@om617yota7 IDK where you are located, but the "gamera" is made in Europe, not sure if they ship it to the US. I think it has a pellet option as well. U might check some videos out on that brand, I have never used it, and don't know much about it, but I definitely know I love this liberator 👍
@@anesthesiadreamin Thank you! I'm in the USA, and will check!
I want to build a scale model of the liberator, could you please give me the dimensions of each part and the steel thickness, I want to put one in my shed in Ireland. great video, I am a new subscriber.
You can estimate the dimensions from the patent drawings.
@@tacticalant3841 i do not have them and you have the stove, would really appreciate it my friend.
How are they to clean and maintain????I have a Comfort Built and on low it will run a bag a day but i have it set up with a portable 3.6Kw solar generator that will power it if the grid goes down!! It only uses about 45W to run it and 450w to start it so no electricity no problem this generator will run it no problem 24/7.also can run other things off this solar generator when grid goes down. I do like this unit you have can run on split wood when SHTF 🙂
You and I think exactly alike here. We were planning on getting a regular pellet stove, just for the low maintenance, set and forget it, and we figured we'd be running a generator anyway for power for other things If the power went out. But this seems to do the business without electricity, we're getting 20 plus hours out of a 40 lb bag, depending on how we throttle the intake. What my wife likes about it though is she can cook on it, she just made the most amazing lentil soup, cooked it in an hour on top of the rocket heater. And yes, the fuel versatility is nice, sticks from the yard, leftover carpentry scraps, cord wood, scrap wood from the dump , pellets.
I thought this was a video on how you built the pellet heater
Did I miss it? About how much weight in pellets would you burn in a 24 hr period? In a 0 Fahrenheit day / night
@@Drizimar1 sorry, maybe I didn't make it clear, one bag *almost* fills the hopper to the top, and runs for about 24 hours. So one 40 lb bag lasts almost 24 hrs. This is with the intake throttled back, One side plugged , the other with five holes in the plug. So it burns this rate consistently no matter what the outside temperature is, and seems to keep our house warm whether it is below zero or above. The only disadvantage is this is not thermostatically controlled like a regular electric pellet stove, so with this one you can't keep the temperature exactly as 72, it can get a lot warmer. And obviously if you let more air flow through it, it will get even hotter. I'm working on a video of lessons learned, should be coming out in the next couple months. Thanks for your good question!
@@anesthesiadreamin thank you😀
How many lbs does the hopper hold
Just over 40 lbs, so one bag
I would like to have this stove if you say that the exhaust gas is 200° why not power vent it? I would love to have this in my home, but I don’t have a chimney available to put it in? We currently have a regular pellet stove, but I’m sure the temperatures are in access to 300° going out of that, there’s a lot of loss in a standard pellet stove this rocket stove if you power vented it it would still be fabulous!! if they make a power vented kit for it boy we would all love to hear that
What brand pellets do you use?
Currently we are using Rocky Canyon premium red fir pellets. They are about $8 a bag around here. We have tried lignetics brant of soft wood pellets, they were about six something a bag, but they don't seem to burn as long and produce a bit more Ash. If you have seen youtuber 'firelight' (who has made a bunch of videos on this same liberator heater), he uses Purcell brand of premium fir pellets, and seems to be very happy with that brand. Hey thanks for watching and for your question 😁
@@anesthesiadreamin Of all the videos I have seen on pellet stoves it seems most of them are problematic where the Liberator seems to work fine. But if you are using a bag of pellets per day that is $200-$240/month. Not a cheap source of heat.
Question is, what is the cost of the pellets? Dependent on a company or source where logs can be sourced for free.
@@shanec.7105 pellets cost me between $6 and $8 a bag in my area. That's a 40 lb bag. That burns about 24 hours. I just bought 2 ton pallet of pellet bags, 50 bags, at 40 lb each. That will last me almost 2 months of continuous burning. Cost is about $375 for the pallet of pellets when bought in bulk. I used to get my firewood for $20 a cord, that was permits to cut logs, I would cut about three cords of trees down, which took a solid long day. Bring it home, then spend another day bucking all those logs. Then spend another 2 days splitting all that wood and stacking it. So at least 4 to 5 long days of very hard labor. That would get me through about 3 months of constant burning. It's way easier just to buy the pellets, bring them home, unload them off the trailer and put them on my porch with the forks on the tractor. Many places will deliver them also. So for me it's just a transition, I'm getting older, and it's so much easier just to use the pellets. I dump them in once, and forget about it all day. Wood stove I have to feed every hour or two, cuz we only have pine in this area, so it burns pretty quick. I'm interested in a pellet machine, which some people make on their own, you can buy them, and then use saw dust or wood chips to make your own pellets. But of course you can burn split wood in this liberator rocket heater also, it's just you have to feed it pretty often
You could use a ecofan on top for quieter air movement and no plugs needed
I've seen those, do they move air very far? Maybe it depends on the model. We're trying to move hot air down the hall and into the bedrooms. But an Eco fan would be sweet if we ever lost power. Thanks for the recommendation, and for watching 👍
Love my Ecofans. They work great as long as you are realistic and consider the basics of thermal currents.
I have one and love it but it is only circulating a small fraction of the big fan you have.
Push the cold air from the extremities of the house instead of trying to push the warm air.
So you are sold on the idea of burning wood pellets now it's time to upgrade to a more efficient and less time consuming heater. May I also add perhaps a little more pleasing on the eye but certainly safer so no burning when touching the exposed metal surfaces.
We live in the UK on the Welsh boarders at the top of a hill 452m above sea level and exposed to strong winds coming from the SW.
I have a biomass boiler that heats my entire house (780sqm), plus all the hot water we need. It runs from 6am to 10pm seven days a week with a winter outside temperature of around 0°C and an internal temperature of 22°C. Occasionally we may see temperatures dip to -5°C but that's only for a few days. Current outside temperatures during the daytime are about 10°C.
We use 15kg of 6mm softwood pellets per day. The feed hopper in the winter is filled just once a week and in the summer filled less than once per month.
I empty the ash pan three times a year with each empty having about the same amount of ash you can put on a dinner plate.
Apart from filling the feed hopper, this is totally automatic with absolutely no input from me.
The boiler was installed 10 years ago in what used to be the tack room of the stables and hot water is pumped underground to the house.
We pay typically about £360 per 975kg of pellets (single pallet load) and get through 4x975kg pallets per annum. The only other cost is an annual service (£350) plus a minimal amount of electricity to operate and manage the boilers computer system.
The boiler is a German made Windhager, has never missed a beat, nothing has been repaired or replaced. It's exactly as it was installed 10 years ago. The entire boiler is covered with an attractive cover, cherry red and light grey, so no hot surfaces to get burnt on.
An added bonus is the computer controller and water manifolds that direct the hot water to the various room radiators etc is installed in a small under stairs cupboard used for coats etc. This room is always warm which is excellent for drying wet coats and muddy boots.
Id move to a warmer climate..
780sqm? Is that a typo? No way you can heat a mansion like that for 15kg of anything a day.
@@TsLeng I'm afraid you are wrong. This is exactly what we do. During the summer when we just need hot water for showers, cleaning etc we use approx one single bag of 15kg pellets per week.
@@simonmusgrovewethey yes in summer that's possible. But it would mean another typo of 4x975kg bags per year. That only average out to 11kg a day.
Maybe you just live there in the summer....😂
@@TsLeng if you take an entire year we get through a maximum of four pallets loads of pellets.
Each pallet contains 975kg of pellets in either 15 or 18kg bags depending on the supplier. In Europe there is a law that bags like cement or in this case wood pellets, mustn't be heavier than 18kg each to avoid back injuries when lifting them.
So to heat the whole house with the central heating and also hot water only in the summer we use 3,900kg but that's a maximum. This year, 2023/4, we had a mild winter with only three days of snow. We got through around 3,400kg in total.
Any idea how many KGs of pellets per hour does the stove use?
it all depends on how you modulate the air intake, or the damper. So you can really throttle the burn down, or speed it up and make more heat. So with high quality pellets (premium red fir), keeping it at 650F, one 40lb bag lasts about 16 hours. If we throttle it back, a 40lb bag can last up to 24 hours. So thats exaclty 0.75kg/hr to 1.25kg/hr, or 1kg/hr average
I need a small one like this for my greenhouse it would work great it wouldn't even have to be a big one!
Have you ever looked into a sawdust barrel stove? They are quite easy to build.
If the map gas lights it twice as fast, but costs twice as much, then you aren't trading time for money. You are paying the same amount per light as half as long means half the gas used and a single bottle will last twice as long. You aren't trading anything to use map, but gaining the time saved as a nice bonus. Plus, less resupply, which also saves time.
@@kinderdm You're exactly right. What I also figured out was the torch head on the map gas makes a much bigger flame, but also works on the propane bottle 🙂 so I quit buying MAPP gas LOL
0:32 A glitch in the matrix? Did you see that creature disappear and reappear? Strange, very strange pet you have there.
@@NOSUBSCRIBERSWANTED Yes, and that doesn't just happen in video editing, it happens in real life! That dumb dog can disappear and reappear anytime it wants
@anesthesiadreamin such a good boy, always coming back after distorting reality❤️😊
ty for sharing. Whats the cost of pellets in that area? Per bag and per ton? for the quality you like to use.
Cost in SW Montana: Lignetics is about $6 per bag, labeled "soft wood" but seems a bit dustier IMHO. The only other brand I've used is Rocky Canyon, labeled " premium fir pellets"about $8 a bag, but burns noticeably longer, somewhat less Ash, and definitely not dusty when filling up the hopper. So lately we've been buying the Rocky Canyon. Another RUclipsr you may have seen by the name of "firelight" who also makes videos on the Liberator Rocket heater, uses Purcell brand premium fir pellets.
So during the very coldest months, like late December, January, early February, we are burning about a bag a day. Now that it's March, we're burning about one half a bag a day.
Question: Why not use paper and kindling?
Yes! It will run on kindling, but it requires feeding every 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how hard the wood is that you have available. Check my playlist "Liberator" on my channel, you will find some shorts where we burned wood in it right after we bought it. But since have switched to pellets just because we light it and it will run without attendance for almost 24 hours straight. the big advantage to this one is "FUEL VERSATILITY".
ruclips.net/user/shorts-rqTv2flhcM
@@anesthesiadreamin I like versatility.
I think I didn't make myself clear enough. I meant to use the kindling only to start the initial fire so you wouldn't have to use the torch. Plus I think the fire area might be a little to large, and the steel might cool too quickly for small sticks from the yard. Almost better to go to a Rocket Mass Heater for fuel conservation, but they are generally big, and bulky. But they do have more compact ones now.
@@evvie01 Aha, I see, I have never used a small fire to start the pellets, but that would be a valuable skill if propane not available. I saw one guy use parrafin impregnated with wood shavings and lamp oil to start his pellets. I tried that but wasn't very successful. And yes, we hope to add some "lighter" thermal mass (this is a manufactured home) at some point 🙂 Can I ask - What "more compact ones" do you mean? just a smaller mass bench? please share
@@anesthesiadreamin I replied to this earlier, and posted it. I think someone took it down. I don't know if it was the Author or RUclips either way it didn't stay. I mentioned another website and added a video link. Perhaps they are frowning on that. I will have to not do that in the future. I like Permies though and hope people know about them otherwise. It's really odd though the link glowed blue and everything, I thought it was okay.
@@evvie01 IDK friend, I don't delete posts unless they are vulgar. But even if they are critical of me, I leave them and usually learn from them as well. But I do know about Permies! That's how I first discovered rocket mass heaters, Paul Wheaton, Erica Weisner (IIRC), great people spreading the good news. I built a thermal mass greenhouse (truly passive) and Permies made a link to it. I was planning on putting a RMH in the greenhouse, but found that it never froze inside (build like an earthship so mid 40's F inside even when it was -31F outside) so I didn't need the RMH. That build is on my channel titled "Thermal Mass Greenhouse". Feel free to try to repost. I don't know what RUclips's algorhythm is for posting links, but I would like to see what you wanted to link
So I'm new here and I did subscribe. Great video! When you fill the pellets to the max in the hopper and feed tube how much pellets is that? 20lbs 30lbs 50lbs.......ect ? Also how many square feet is it heating? I'm assuming 1 level home?
@@eddiekytia Yes, I'm sorry I didn't make that clear. Several people have asked about that, and I'm making a follow-up video to answer people 's comments and questions. Hopefully have that in a couple months. One 40 lb bag of pellets fills the hopper almost full, so it may take another 3 or 4 lb to top it off. Our house is 2,800 square feet, but the back bedroom and bathroom are pretty far away, and even with fans it doesn't warm them very well, that's why we cut it off in the evening, and let the propane heat come on overnight to warm the back bedroom and bathroom. And yes, one level home.